


Our Minds Work in Odd Ways (But We Like It Like That)

by InsomniacAndBi



Series: Our Minds [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Voldemort, Bisexual Hermione Granger, Criminal Profiler, Deception Specialist, Emotion Reader, Established Fleur Delacour/Hermione Granger, F/F, F/M, Ginny continues to be a little shit, Hermione Has Abandonment Issues, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Lesbian Fleur Delacour, Luna continues to have no social skills, Muggle Technology is mixed with Wizarding Technology, Murder, Naturals Au, Protective Ginny Weasley, Serial Killer, Sketch Artist, Statistician, Trauma, angsty
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-13 04:00:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 16
Words: 44,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28771998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsomniacAndBi/pseuds/InsomniacAndBi
Summary: Fleur and Hermione have barely finished their recoveries after Andromeda's secret was revealed when a new supervisor arrives and another killer is on the prowl, with the same MO as Hermione's incarcerated aunt BellatrixORThe second instalment of my Fleurmione Naturals Au - this time based on the second Naturals book by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Relationships: Amelia Bones & Alecto Carrow, Amelia Bones/Alecto Carrow, Fleur Delacour & Hermione Granger, Fleur Delacour/Hermione Granger, Harry Potter & Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley
Series: Our Minds [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2029366
Comments: 28
Kudos: 105





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Naturals close a cold case  
> Theo is a little bit (very) jealous  
> Ginny takes off her shirt  
> And somebody new arrives at Shell Cottage

The majority of children who were kidnapped in Magical Britain, were found killed and dead within three hours of the abduction and because of her roommate Luna, Fleur knew the exact numbers. She also knew that when she went from discussing hours to days and days to weeks then the likelihood of recovery had dropped so far that the DMLE could not longer justify the Aurors needed to keep the case open.

She also knew that by the time that the case had been classified as cold and found its way to Shell Cottage then she was probably looking for a body and not a little girl.

But…

But Maria Glossop had been six years old.

But her favourite colour had been green and she had wanted to follow in her father's footsteps and become a Cursebreaker.

Fleur knew that only somebody heartless could stop looking for a kid like that.

"It'll be fine," Theodore Nott said as he eased himself onto the sofa next to her, stretching out his bad leg on the coffee table.

Just a few months ago he had been shot by Andromeda Tonks - their former supervisor and Fleur's mentor.

Just a few months ago, Theo and Fleur's friendship had grown tense - the animosity between them going both ways.

They didn't talk to each other unless they needed to, so Fleur was a little confused why he was trying to comfort her.

"Theo's right," Harry Potter said as he slumped in the seat opposite them. He leaned forward with a wicked grin. “You look like a woman in need of amusement or possibly alcohol.”

“I am fine,” Fleur replied.

"The corners of your mouth are turned upward and the rest of your face is fighting it - like if your lips parted into even a tiny smile then you might start crying."

Fleur almost groaned. That was the downside of her choice to stay in the Naturals program. They were all at Shell Cottage because they saw things that other people didn't. Harry read facial expressions as easily as other people read words. Theo could read the muscles of the body and could recreate them in a picture so realistic that it might as well have been a photograph. Fleur had the uncanny ability to read somebody's behaviours and work out their whole personality from only a few scraps of details.

Harry sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Say the word, Fleur," He said," And I will provide a much needed distraction."

Fleur rolled her eyes. The last time that Harry had offered her a distraction, they had spent half an hour blowing up the basement with Muggle explosives and then hacked their way into a secure DMLE USB drive. Well... _technically_ , Luna had been the one that had hacked into the USB drive but the end result had been the same.

"No distractions," Fleur said firmly.

Harry shrugged. "Are you sure? Because this distraction involves Ginny, peanut butter and revenge."

Fleur wasn't entirely sure what the resident deception specialist had done that to provoke the kind of vengeance that needed peanut butter but, given Ginny's personality and her relationship with Harry, the possibilities were endless.

"What if we are wrong?" Fleur asked out of nowhere - her thoughts looping right back to Maria Glossop.

"We're not wrong," Theo said from the other end of the sofa.

One of the first thing Fleur had done when Amelia had handed over the Maria Glossop file was profile the suspect - a man who had been released from Auror surveillance a few days before Maria had disappeared. The suspect of Maria's case had no focus but the actual abduction was too well planned - it didn't add up.

Fleur had combed through the file as she looked for someone who seemed like a possible fit.

_Young - probably between the age range of twenty-two and twenty-three when Maria had been taken._

_Male ._

_Intelligent - most likely somebody who didn't hold a magical Mastery but some form of Muggle degree turned into magical qualifications._

_Precise._

She had half begged, half coerced Ginny into going through all of the witness testimonies, interrogations and interviews - everything that had been related to the case, hoping that she could catch someone in a revealing lie.

She did - eventually.

The magical lawyer that had been hired for the Glossop family had made a statement to the press. To Fleur, it had seemed standard but to Ginny, lies were as annoying as off-key singing was to a person with perfect pitch.

_“No one can make sense of a tragedy like this.”_

The lawyer was young, male, intelligent, precise—and when he had said those words, he had been lying.

_There was one person who could make sense of what had happened, a person who didn’t think it was a tragedy._

_The person who’d taken Maria._

The lawyer's physical features had matched almost exactly with one of the sketches that Theo had drawn up from a few of the eyewitnesses descriptions - although he had made many due to conflicting ideas because of a lack of cohesive recollection between the witnesses. According to Harry, the lawyer had felt a thrill just mentioning the girl's name. Fleur hoped that that meant there was a chance - no matter how small - that he had kept Maria alive as a living, breathing reminded that he was bigger, better and smarter than the DMLE.

"Fleur," Hermione Granger burst into the room and Fleur's chest constricted. Hermione was quiet and self-contained - she almost never raised her voice.

" 'Ermione?"

“They found her," Hermione replied, a bright smile on her face," Fleur, they found her on his property - exactly where Luna's calculations said she would be. The kid's alive."

Fleur jumped up and pumped her fist in the air - a far cry from her usual, cool façade. Hermione was dragged down onto her lap and they shared a soft kiss while Theo and Harry grinned at the news.

“Is this a private party, or can anyone join?”

The four of them turned to see Ginny in the doorway. She was dressed from head to toe in black with a white silk scarf tied neatly around her neck. She arched an eyebrow - cool, calm and a little bit mocking.

,"Admit it, Gin," Harry said as Ginny joined him on the armchair," You're just as happy as we are."

Ginny eyed Fleur. She eyed Hermione, comfortably sitting on Fleur's lap. She eyed the gap between the couple and Theo. "Honestly," She said," I doubt that anyone is as happy as Fleur is at this exact moment."

Fleur ignored Ginny's suggestive dig - she was not going to allow the girl the satisfaction of knowing that she was right.

"Admit it," Harry said again," You're just as happy as we are."

Ginny tossed her hair over her shoulder and refused to look any of them in the eye. "A little girl is going home because of us," She said finally," Of course I'm as happy as you guys are."

“Given individual differences in serotonin levels, the probability that any four people would be experiencing identical levels of happiness simultaneously is quite—”

"Luna," Theo said, without bothering to turn around," If you don't finish that sentence then there's a cup of coffee in your future."

“My immediate future?” Luna asked as she walked into the room fully - stopping in front of Theo to narrow her eyes suspiciously at him.

Hermione and Fleur exchanged an exasperated look.

* * *

Ten seconds later, Luna was in the kitchen and Hermione was curled up on Fleur's lap - arms looped around the back of her girlfriend's neck to keep herself steady.

"Ah," Ginny said as she kicked her legs up onto the table from where she had perched herself on Harry," This is the life - just me and the trash gremlins that I live with."

Hermione raised a singular eyebrow and Fleur swallowed thickly - Hermione had no right looking that attractive. "Trash?" She echoed," Gin - we aren't American."

Ginny just rolled her eyes before pouting. "You ruin all of my fun," She complained and Hermione bit back an exasperated laugh.

"Alright you two," Theo - ever the peacemaker - stopped them before it got too out of hand," Knock it off." He hadn't looked at Hermione ever since she had sat down on Fleur and he didn't even glance in their direction when he spoke- not that Fleur blamed him, she knew that she would react in the same way if it was him and Hermione.

"Now Theo's ruining my fun!" Ginny announced - hands flying up in annoyance before she crossed them over her chest and pouted.

"There, there, Gin," Harry said - patting his girlfriend awkwardly on the armchair," I'm sure that you'll get your fun a different way."

Ginny's answering smile had knots forming in Fleur's stomach and she wondered just how much those two had planned. Hermione seemed to be thinking the same as she shrunk back into Fleur's grip and shuddered slightly as Harry matched his girlfriend's smirk. Theo seemed to be as equally unnerved as he watched them while Luna, still in the kitchen and under the influence of the coffee already, started spouting off statistics to nobody but herself.

Ginny and Harry, while being completely different people, were two peas in a pot. Ginny was the troublemaker - flaunting the rules at any opportunity she could get. Harry, on the other hand, was blindly loyal to a fault with a mischievous streak that ran wild when the two of them joined forces. But, joining forces like they were currently doing, was rare and - more often than not - they were engaged in a prank war with each other.

Fleur and Hermione exchanged a look of horror.

Harry and Ginny teaming up only meant one thing.

Trouble.

"What are you two planning?" Hermione asked suspiciously - eyes narrowed as she watched them.

Ginny grinned at her. "Tell me Hermione," She drawled," How lucky are you feeling today?"

* * *

Fleur was dead.

She was outmanned, outgunned, seconds away from disaster - and there was nothing that she could do about it.

"I'll see your three and raise you two." Harry smirked and Fleur couldn't help but feel unnerved. If she had been an emotion reader then she could have worked out it it was an 'I-have-an-incredible-hand-and-I'm-spoon-feeding-you-your-own-doom' smirk or if it was a 'smirk-that-you-can't-tell-that-I'm-bluffing' smirk.

Either way, she made a mental note to never play poker with Naturals ever again.

"I'm in." Ginny twirled a strand of hair around her index finger tauntingly before she slid the right number of Oreos into the centre of the dining table. Given that her expertise was spotting lies, Fleur took that to mean that there was a very good chance that Harry was bluffing.

The only problem was that now she had no idea if _Ginny_ was bluffing.

Theo seemed to have the same problem but he threw in some Oreos as well - glancing between Ginny and Harry suspiciously. He hadn't been having the best luck tonight but, then again, neither was Fleur.

Luna looked up from behind her mountain of Oreos. "I'll sit this one out," She announced," Also, I'm entertaining the idea of eating some of my poker chips. Can we agree that an Oreo missing its frosting it worth two-thirds of its normal amount?"

"Just eat," Fleur told her, eyeing the pile enviously," You 'ave plenty to spare."

Before joining the Naturals program, Luna had been born and raised in Wizarding Britain's gambling capital. She had been counting cards the moment she learnt how to count. She sat out a third of the hands that had been dealt but had won every single one that she had played.

"Somebody's a bad sport," Ginny taunted. She waggled a finger at the Profiler with a taunting smirk on her face.

"Somebody only 'as a few Oreos left," Fleur said sourly before she pushed them into the centre," I am in." She realised that there was no point in stringing out her defeat longer than need be. Back at Beauxbatons, everybody had known not to play a card game against Fleur. Her odd Profiling quirk meant that she could look at a person's clothes and posture and work out how much of a risk taker they were - whether or not they would bluff quietly or put on a show. Unfortunately, she was not playing with normal people and the ability to read people's personalities wasn't nearly as useful in a group of people that contained a deception specialist, who liked making her life a misery, a statistician with a competitive streak, an emotion reader, who liked the odd bit of trouble, a sketch artist who catalogued her giveaway ticks and her girlfriend - a fellow profiler.

"What about you, Mione? Are you in or not?" Harry asked.

Fleur narrowed her eyes at him in confusion.

Perhaps Ginny had misread him.

She turned the thought over in her mind.

_Maybe he wasn't bluffing._

Hermione had won most of the hands that Luna didn't participate in. Harry must have been confident that he would win to challenge her so openly.

"I'm in," Hermione said," All in." She pushed her Oreos into the centre and raised an eyebrow at Harry.

Harry matched her bet.

Ginny matched Harry's bet.

Theo matched Ginny's.

It was Fleur's turn.

She made a show of showing them all her complete lack of Oreos. "I am out of cookies," She said.

"I'm open to discussing a modest interest rate," Luna piped up from next to before turning her attention back to scraping the frosting off of one of her Oreos.

"I have an idea," Ginny said. Her tone was overly innocent and Fleur immediately recognised it as trouble. "We could always take things to the next level." She unknotted the white scarf around her neck and tossed it at Fleur. Her fingers played with the bottom of her shirt, raising it up just enough to make it clear to everybody what the next level was.

Luna cocked her head to the side. "It is my understanding that the rules of strip poker specify that only the loser is required to take off their clothes," She said," No one has lost yet, meaning-"

"A show of solidarity," Ginny interrupted," Fleur's out of cookies and I'm evening the playing field." She pulled off her shirt and threw it onto the pile of Oreos. She was wearing a bikini top underneath - clearly playing strip poker had been her plan for a while. She turned to Fleur and smirked. "Ante up."

Fleur scowled but took off her belt - daring Ginny silently to challenge it.

"Luna?" Ginny said.

Luna stared at her for a moment before gesturing to her mountain of cookies. "I'm not undressing until we establish a conversion rate."

"Luna," Theo said.

"Yes?"

"How do you feel about a second cup of coffee?"

Forty-five seconds later, Luna was in the kitchen again and neither of the boys were wearing a shirt. Harry's stomach was tanned, a shade or two darker than Theo's. From an objective standpoint, Fleur could admit that he was attractive but she had no interest in boys in general so looked at his body the way that an art critic looked at a piece of artwork that they didn't enjoy - respectful of what it looked like but, personally, not for her. Theo was also, aesthetically, attractive. His skin was like marble except for one of the bullet scars that he had - the other on his leg. 

Hermione had also thrown in a piece of clothing - the hoodie that she had been wearing. Although, upon closer inspection, it was actually Fleur's hoodie that the girl had stolen from her wardrobe a few weeks previous.

"I call," Ginny announced suddenly.

One by one, they flipped their cards.

Theo had a flush.

Ginny had a three of a kind.

Harry had a full house - queens and eights. Fleur knew that he hadn't been bluffing.

Hermione had a straight flush.

"Your turn," Ginny said.

Fleur flipped her cards over and her brain catalogued the result a moment before everybody else did. "Full 'ouse," She said with a grin," Kings and twos. I suppose zat means I win?"

"How did you...?" Harry sputtered.

"Are you telling me that the pity party was an act?" Ginny sounded impressed - even though Fleur knew that the other girl hated it.

"It was not an act," Fleur replied," I fully expected to lose. I just 'ad not looked at my final cards yet."

She had figured that if she didn't know what her hand held then there was no way for Harry or Ginny to work it out either.

Hermione was the first to start laughing. "Hail Fleur," She said," Queen of loopholes." She reached out from across the table and tugged Fleur up by the collar of her shirt - crashing their lips together in a congratulatory kiss.

Theo looked away.

"Does zis mean zat I get to keep your shirts?" Fleur couldn't help but taunt them a little - riding the high of her unexpected victory as she started to pull everything in the centre of the table towards her.

"I think that it would be best if everybody maintained possession of their own shirts. Put them on - now."

Fleur froze. The voice that had issued the command was crisp and unquestionably female. For a split second, she was taken back to her first few weeks in the program - to her old supervisor, Auror Andromeda Black-Tonks.

The one that had ended up being a serial killer that had straddled the line between wanting to nurture or murder Fleur's girlfriend.

"Who are you?" She growled out, suddenly tense as she turned around in her seat - banishing the thoughts of Andromeda from her mind. This new woman was tall and thin. Her deep red hair was pulled into a tight French knot at the nape of her neck and she held her head high with her chin thrust forward slightly. Her eyes were blue - a few shades lighter than the navy blue of her suit. Her clothes were expensive but she wore them like they weren't.

Her wand was holstered on her hip as she stared down at them all.

Hermione stayed standing as she moved to Fleur's side of the table. She rested a hand on her girlfriend's shoulder. "Fleur," She said," It's okay - I know her."

"Who are you?" Fleur asked again, fighting back a partial shift and the budding snarl in her throat. "And what are you doing in our 'ouse?"

The woman considered her for a moment. Her eyes flicked between Fleur and Hermione's hand on her shoulder.

"I am Auror Alecto Carrow," She said finally," And as of right now, I live here."

* * *

_You look at yourself in the mirror._

_You run a hand through your hair._

_Her picture is in your hand._

_You stare at it for a moment before crushing it in your hand._

_You open your fist._

_You look at her waving at you - face crumpled slightly._

_You wave back._

_You smile._

_You light the picture on fire - watching as the picture version of her screams and screams and screams even though nobody can hear her._

_You look away._

_You turn off the tap and straighten your back._

_You look at yourself in the mirror._

_You smile - all teeth and full of danger._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I said that I would wait until I finished everything else but surprise-surprise, I lied to myself and started this again.  
> Plot is based on the second Naturals book but I kind off twisted it a lot to fit with my own nefarious ideas


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Naturals are confronted with Auror Alecto Carrow  
> Hermione and Auror Carrow have a little talk

"Well," Ginny was the one that broke the stunned silence," She's really an Auror, her name is Alecto Carrow and, for some reason, she's operating under the misguided belief that she now resides under our roof."

"Ginevra, I presume?" Alecto said," The one who specialises in lies."

"Telling them, spotting them - it's all the same." Ginny's tone was teasing but her eyes were sharp and calculating.

"And yet," Alecto continued as if she hadn't spoken," You interacted on a daily basis with an Auror who was moonlighting as a serial killer. She was a constant presence in this house for years and no alarm bells went off." Her tone was clinical - stating nothing but the facts of the matter.

She turned to look at Theo. "And you are Theodore - the sketch artist who did a stupid thing for a girl that doesn't like him back."

"Leave him alone," Harry stood up, slamming his hands onto the table and glaring at the woman," You don't get to come in here and start making judgements about things you don't understand."

The woman tutted as she levelled a bored gaze at him. "You must be Harry, the emotion reader with a noble streak and a need to prove yourself to your friends - prompting you to allow another member of this program to hack into a secure drive." She pointed a finger at Luna. "And you are Luna, the statistician who was the one that actually hacked into that very same drive."

Luna just shrugged.

Alecto looked at Fleur. "And that makes you Fleur Delacour," She said," I hadn't pegged you for the type to play strip poker and, no, you don't get any credit for being the one that won the hand."

She gave a pointed look at the pile of clothes before crossing her arms and waiting. Theo grabbed his shirt and threw Harry his own shirt. They hastily put them on. Ginny, on the other hand, didn't appear overly bothered by the crossed arms and she didn't seem compelled to get dressed either. 

Auror Carrow narrowed her eyes at the girl before she turned to look at Hermione - whose face was stuck halfway between confusion and annoyance. "This program has a vacancy for a supervisor," Carrow said," I'm here to fill it."

"True," Ginny drew out the word with a soft smirk on her face," But that's not the whole story." When Alecto didn't rise to the bait, she continued. "It's been a few months since Andromeda went off the deep end. We were starting to wonder if the DMLE was ever going to send a replacement. What hole did they dig you up from?"

It was clear as day that Ginny did not appreciate the attention that the Auror had on Hermione.

"Let's just say that I'm uniquely qualified for the position." Carrow's tone was laced with sickly sweetness and, vaguely, Fleur was reminded of something else.

_Of someone else._

For the first time, her last name sank in and Fleur realised where she had heard it before.

"Auror Carrow?" She asked," As in Director Carrow?"

"Director Carrow is my father." Alecto's voice was neutral - too neutral and Fleur wondered if they had only just begun to scratch the surface of her daddy issues. "He sent me here to do damager control."

_Director Carrow chose his own daughter as Andromeda's replacement._

_She arrived when Amelia was out of town._

Fleur doubted that the timing was coincidental.

"Amelia told me you left the Homicide department," Hermione said quietly," I heard that you'd transferred to Counterterrorism." 

“I did.”

Fleur tried to pinpoint the exact tone of voice that Auror Carrow had used. She and Hermione knew each other. That much was clear - both from Hermione's earlier statement and from the way that Alecto's face softened, almost unnoticeably, when she looked at the girl.

_A maternal streak, perhaps?_

It didn't properly fit with the way that she was dressed - her super-erect posture, the way she talked about the rest of the group rather than to them. 

Fleur's first thoughts about this woman were simple. She was hyper-controlled, professional and held everybody at an arms length. She either didn't like teenagers in general or disliked their group specifically.

“Is there something you’d care to share with the class, Fleur?”

Whatever sliver of softness had crept into Auror Carrow's tone when she spoke to Hermione had disappeared when she addressed Fleur. She had caught the Veela profiling her and called her out on it.

Fleur filed away her two new ideas.

The first was based on the way that Carrow had chosen to do so. There was a hint of sarcasm buried underneath her humourless exterior. Fleur wondered if, at some point in her life, the Auror would have said those words with a grin instead of a grimace.

Second...

"It takes one to know one," Fleur said out loud," You are a profiler - like me and 'Ermione."

““What makes you think that?”

“Zey sent you 'ere to replace Andromeda.”

"And?" Carrow's voice was emotionless - too emotionless.

“You read our files," Fleur said," And you profiled us and put us in boxes before you ever stepped foot in our 'ouse which means you know 'ow much it kills us zat we did not see Andromeda for what she was. You either wanted to see 'ow we would deal with you mentioned it or you just wanted to pick at ze wound for kicks." She paused and raked her eyes over Carrow's body, remembering to take in the tiniest of details - fingernail polish, posture, shoes. "You seem more like a masochist zan a sadist so I zink zat it was ze former."

The room fell into an uncomfortable silence and Auror Carrow wielded it like a weapon. "I don't need you to lecture me on what it means to be a profiler," She said - voice cold as she stepped closer to Fleur," I swept my OWLs and my NEWTs with Outstandings, I have a Mastery in Defence Against the Dark Arts, I am the youngest person ever to graduate from Auror training. I have clocked more field time during my stint in the Homicide department than you will see in your entire life and I have spent the last few years in Counterterrorism. While I am living in this house, you will address me as Auror Carrow or ma'am and you will never refer to yourself as a profiler in my company because, at the end of the day, you're just a kid."

There was something in her voice again that Fleur just couldn't shake. There was a hint of something else beneath Carrow's frosty exterior - like a person staring at something trapped under several feet of ice. Fleur just couldn't make out what it was.

"There is no 'we' here, Fleur. There's you, there's me and there's the evaluation that I'm writing about this program. So I suggest that you all clean up this mess, go to bed and get a good night's sleep. You're going to need it." She threw Ginny her shirt. "Hermione - stay behind. I want to talk to you."

* * *

Fleur tossed and turned in her bed.

Luna was out like a light and nothing short of an earthquake combined with a particularly loud thunderstorm would wake her now. Fleur, on the other hand, couldn't get sleep to claim her no matter what she did. Her mind was on overdrive and it kept circling back to Carrow and Hermione - who were still in the living room together.

Her girlfriend had offered no other explanation when she told Fleur to go with Luna to bed - just a cryptic remark that the conversation with Carrow was long overdue and something she wanted to do without interruptions from anybody. Fleur had relented then but not before she had given Hermione a long open-mouthed kiss, uncaring of the disapproving glare she had received from Auror Carrow.

There was something about the woman that Fleur didn't like - although she couldn't put her finger on what exactly it was.

She tossed over in bed again - staring at the closed door.

She sat up in bed and glanced around the room. Luna was still asleep and was unlikely to wake up no matter what Fleur did. She stood up and opened the door slightly - blinking her eyes to get used to the sudden influx of light. She could hear voices from the kitchen and tentatively walked forward - peering around the corner of the wall. Her eyes went immediately opposite her - to the hallway that lead to the other side of the house, where Ginny, Theo and Hermione's bedrooms were.

She wasn't surprised in the slightest when she saw Ginny and Theo eavesdropping in the opposite hallway.

Privacy was something of a foreign concept in Shell Cottage.

"I told you," Hermione was saying when Fleur arrived," I'm fine."

"You're not fine, Hermione," Carrow's voice had, yet again, taken on that maternal edge that had been used earlier on in the day," You shouldn't have to be fine - _I'm_ not fine with what happened and I wasn't even there!"

"What do you want me to say?!" Hermione snapped, anger clouding her features and arms clenching into fists at her sides. She moved to take a step forward - hand raised - before she thought better of it and turned away. Her tone softened slightly as she spoke again. "What do you want me to say, Alecto? What do you want to hear?"

"I want the truth." 

Carrow made no move towards Hermione, arms crossed and expression hard as she stood behind the girl.

"What truth exactly?" Hermione huffed, not turning to look back at the woman," What do you want to know? That my custody has now been transferred to Narcissa sodding Malfoy?! Her son, _my cousin,_ is an entitled arse and her husband is a prejudiced idiot who will not shut up about how the mighty house of Black has fallen because my dad was a Muggle so, _Alecto,_ I'm not entirely sure what you want to know."

She turned to face the Auror, anger evident in her eyes.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Hermione cut her off," After all - you were the one who left and I think that we both know why."

"I got somebody killed, Hermione," The Auror said," You don't know what that feels like."

Hermione narrowed her eyes and took two carefully controlled steps forward before she shoved Carrow back. "Bullshit," She snarled, nose wrinkled up in a sneer that Fleur had never seen on her face before," I know exactly what that feels like! You think that I don't carry the guilt of what happened during the Summer?! You think that I don't feel the guilt of getting Theo shot and my girlfriend injured?! Bloody hell, Alecto, I even feel guilty about what happened to Andromeda - even though that wasn't my fault! So, don't you dare tell me that I don't know what that feels like!"

Carrow blinked a few times before she reached out a cautious hand to the younger girl. "Mia-"

"NO!" Hermione pulled away quickly," You don't get to call me that - after everything that's happened. You don't get to come back to this house out of nowhere and think that we can pick up where we left off. You don't get to do this after coming home and insulting all of my friends. I'm sorry Alecto - it's not happening."

"Hermione-"

"No, we're done here."

From across the house, Fleur and Ginny met each other's gazes.

* * *

_You were nervous the first time you saw her, standing beside the big oak tree with her long hair shining in the morning light._

_You asked what her name was._

_You memorized everything about her._

_Perfect._

_Unlike you._

_But none of that matters._

_Not her name._

_Not the tree._

_Not the nerves that are threatening to bubble up your throat._

_You’ve come too far._

_You’ve waited too long to screw this up._

_“She’ll fight you if you let her,” A familiar voice whispers._

_“I won’t let her," You hiss back, hands tightening around your wand._

_Your throat is dry but you know that you're ready now._

_You've been ready for a while now._

_It was time for everybody to know._

_“I’ll tie her up.”_

_“Bind her," The voice whispers back._

_Bind her._

_Brand her._

_Cut her._

_Kill her._

_That’s the way this has to be done._

_That’s what her fate is._

_She shouldn't have come to school so early._

_She shouldn’t have slept with him in the first place._

_Shouldn’t._

_Shouldn’t._

_Shouldn’t._

_You’re waiting for her in the shadows when she leans against the tree._

_You’re prepared._

_She has a test today._

_So do you._

_She turns slightly and looks into the bushes._

_Her eyes meets yours for a fleeting second._

_She sees you._

_She's about to scream._

_You silence her with a spell and knock her unconscious._

_Bind them._

_Brand them._

_Cut them._

_Kill them._

_It has begun_.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fleur and Auror Carrow butt heads  
> Amelia comes home  
> Ginny continues to be a little shit

Fleur slept until noon the next day but woke up feeling like she had when she had gotten drunk for the first time. Her head pounded and a groan spilled from her lips as she sat up - blinking until her eyes adjusted to the mid-day light that was filtering through her window. She needed food, a strong coffee and, quite possibly, a Pepper-Up Potion as well. She glanced across the room and wasn't at all surprised when she saw that Luna's bed was empty - and looked like it had been so for a while.

"Rough night?" Moody asked as Fleur slumped down at the table in the kitchen - resting her head on the cool marble surface. Moody hadn't looked away from his crossword puzzle and, to the outward eye, it look like that he didn't really care about her answer.

But, Fleur knew better.

"You could say zat," She groaned out," 'Ave you met Auror Carrow?"

Moody's grizzled face twitched slightly. "You could say that."

Moody was only twenty years or so older than Amelia was but he had been dismissed from Auror ranks due to his unpredictable nature. His new job involved looking after Shell Cottage and looking after the Naturals. The house was in excellent condition. The six teenagers in the house however...Moody was pretty hands-off in his job unless it was feeding them or teaching them. But, somehow, Fleur was beginning to see him as family - more so than even her own father.

"Auror Carrow seems to zink zat she is moving in," Fleur commented - watching Moody for any reaction. If she had added up the ages correctly - and she was pretty sure that she had - then Carrow didn't seem to be much younger than Amelia was meaning that Moody could have very well met the woman before he had retired. "Can she do zat?"

Moody looked up from his puzzle. "If she were anyone else," He said after a moment's though," Then I would be inclined to say no."

"But?" Fleur probed - almost certain that Moody knew more than he was saying.

"Good - you're up."

Fleur stifled another groan and dropped her head back onto the counter.

"Do you always make it a practice to sleep until lunch?" Auror Carrow asked. Her face was a perfect mask of indifference and Fleur gave her an obligatory once over. 

The Auror was wearing makeup but didn't look like she was. The clear coat of polish on her nails made it look almost natural - just like the colours that she had used for her eyes and lips.

Fleur was a Veela - it was in her blood to look perfect - but she still wondered how much effort went into Carrow's ability to look so effortlessly perfect.

"You spent ze night 'ere?" Fleur asked - brows furrowed as she rolled it over in her mind.

_Andromeda never slept at Shell Cottage._

_Amelia didn't._

_You don't do things halfway._

"There's a pull-out sofa in the study," Moody explained - sounding slightly disgruntled," I offered her my room but Miss Stubborn refused to take it."

Fleur jolted a little bit and her eyes darted between Moody and Auror Carrow - scrutinising them both.

Apart from Amelia, she had never heard Moody refer to an Auror as anything but their title so it was a bit of a shock to hear him using the same tone that Fleur would have expected him to use with Ginny.

"I'm not kicking you out of your own bed, Alastor."

Then, there was that.

There was an odd sense of exasperation to Carrow's voice - like they had had that argument at least three times before. She was talking to Moody like she knew him - different from the way that Amelia knew him. This was personal.

"Sit down," Moody grunted," Fleur hasn't eaten anything since last night - I can make two sandwiches just as easy as one."

"I can make my own sandwich - I am not 'elpless," Fleur argued - filled with an odd need to prove herself to Carrow that she wasn't just some blonde idiot that didn't know how to use her ability.

“I already made myself a sandwich," Auror Carrow replied.

Moody made two sandwiches anyway - sliding one in front of Fleur and the other in front of an empty spot at the table. He gave Carrow a look and she sat down after a few seconds.

"Where are ze ozzers?" Fleur asked. Usually, she couldn't spend even two minutes in the kitchen without Ginny coming in to take some ice cream or Harry appearing to make himself some bacon.

"Harry hasn't made an appearance," Auror Carrow replied stiffly," The others are in the living room - taking practice OWLs and NEWTs."

Fleur choked slightly. "What?!"

Auror Carrow shrugged and replied in a too-calm tone that Fleur gathered was excellent at interrogating suspects. "It's September. If you weren't part of this program then you'd be in school. In fact, I'm fairly certain that your family was told that you would receive schooling here. Some people would let that slide - not me."

Fleur got the feeling that when Carrow said 'some people' she meant Amelia, not Moody.

"You're lucky that you have a family who might actually check up on your schooling somebody," She continued," Not everyone in this place is so fortunate. Hermione and Ginny have been home-schooled for a while now. I'm not concerned about Luna."

That just left Fleur, Theo and Harry. If she hadn't been in the program, then Fleur would have just started her last year of school and Harry and Theo would have just started their first NEWT year.

"Take the practice test," Carrow ordered in an offhand way that had Fleur's blood boiling," If you need a tutor then we'll get you one. Either way, the other aspects of your education can wait."

Fleur's heart skipped a beat for a moment - she had forgotten that there was a type of learning that didn't involve climbing into a criminal's brain. Hermione had once told her that doing this caused a person to become screwed up - Fleur wondered if this was what she meant.

Either way, she pushed the half eaten sandwich away from her and started towards the door.

"You going to eat your sandwich, Ali?" Moody asked.

Fleur's step faltered for a moment and her eyebrows shot up.

"It's Alecto," Carrow said stiffly," In this house, I can't afford to be anything but professional."

_They know each other._

_They've known each other for a very long time._

It hadn't occurred to Fleur that Director Carrow might have chosen his daughter for this assignment for reasons other than their shared blood.

Fleur made it to the door after recovering from the shock - only to jump back when Amelia apparated just in front of her. The Auror reached out to steady her. Fleur went to thank her only to find that Amelia's gaze was already elsewhere.

"Ali."

"Bones," Carrow replied, making a point of not using Amelia's first name or any abbreviation of it," I assume that the Director briefed you."

Amelia's look was one of heartbreak and her voice broke slightly as she spoke. "You could have owled."

Fleur knew that she was right - they had definitely worked together before.

"Fleur." Amelia seemed to remember that she was still in the room. "I see that you've met Auror Carrow."

"We met last night," Fleur replied," 'Ow is Maria?"

Amelia smiled - a genuine one which was a rare event. "She's home but she'll need a lot of support - the girl's a survivor." She turned her attention to Auror Carrow and allowed pride to seep into her voice. "The Naturals have just closed their second cold case this month - a child abduction."

"Impressive," Carrow drawled," Especially considered two children have been hospitalised due to this program but, clearly, that just comes out in the wash."

"Fleur," Amelia said through gritted teeth," Why don't you go and see what the others are doing?"

Fleur knew a dismissal when she heard one and went without complaint - even though the tone made annoyance seep into her body. Amelia might as well have said 'why don't you run outside and play?' and the same sentiments would have been interpreted.

* * *

She found the others in one of the studies and wasn't surprised that the only one who was taking the practice exam was Hermione. Theo was using the paper to sketch an incredibly realistic drawing of Carrow - complete with devil horns, a pitchfork and a tail. Ginny was filing her nails with a look of complete boredom on her face while Luna appeared to be constructing some kind of catapult using pencils, rubber bands and her wand.

"Good morning, Phlegm," Ginny said," I'm no Harry but, based on the expression on your face, I'm guessing that you've been spending quality time with the lovely Auror Carrow." She beamed. "Isn't she just the best?"

Fleur always found that to be the eeriest thing about Ginny - the way that she could make anything sound genuine. Ginny wasn't fond of the DMLE in general and she was the type to ignore the rules just because she could but, even knowing all of this, Fleur couldn't see through her lie.

"There's something about Carrow that just makes me want to listen to everything she has to say," Ginny continued earnestly," We must be soulmates."

Hermione snorted but didn't look up from her test. Theo kicked Luna under the table when she set off her catapult and Fleur had to use her wand to knock the projectile out of the sky moments before it hit her.

"Amelia is back," Fleur said as she took a seat at the table next to Hermione - lacing their hands together.

“Thank Merlin." Ginny dropped the act and balanced on the back two legs of her chair. "If any of you tell her that I said that then you will rue the day that you were born."

"She knows Carrow," Fleur continued," And so does Moody - zey called 'er Ali."

"Hermione," Ginny said - eyes alight in amusement as she drew at the girl's name in a way specifically designed to annoy her," Stop pretending to work and tell us what you know."

Hermione ignored her and Ginny glared - giving Fleur a pointed glance.

"Carrow was part of ze team zat looked after you after your Mum died," Fleur said, testing her theory," She was Amelia's partner."

"She was," Hermione confirmed after a long stretch of silence," They were also married."

_'They **were** also married'_

_Past tense_

_They weren't married anymore._

"She's Amelia's ex-wife?" Theo said in shock," And the Director sent her here? That can't be ethical."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Anymore unethical than an off the books DMLE program that uses underage prodigies to catch serial killers?" She scoffed," Or what about sending his own daughter to replace Andromeda? Clearly, nepotism and shadiness are alive and well at DMLE headquarters."

Luna looked up from her catapult and shrugged. "As of nineteen-seventy-nine, the DMLE had no written policies on interoffice dating," She said the statistics like they were something that everybody should know," Intercompany marriages aren't uncommon but they do contribute to the minority of employee marital unions."

Just like everything Luna said, Fleur only understood a few of the words that had been said.

Ginny rolled her eyes again and tossed her hair over her shoulder. "Guys," She said," We're talking about Director Carrow here, remember?"

Theo nodded along. "She's right," He said," He practically bought me from my father by promising to make the department look the other way when he committed white-collar crimes."

Ginny nodded. "He's the guy that had the DMLE haul me off the streets and told me that my only other option was juvie! He's not a good guy!"

_Juvie?_

_White-collar crimes?_

This was one of the first times that Fleur had heard about Theo's life before the program. She only knew the bare minimum - he still had family to go back to and she knew that they were wealthy. As for Ginny...all she knew was that her family had once been in a cult - this was the first time that she heard juvie being mentioned.

"Amelia and Carrow were the one's that took me in after my mother died - they would take turns looking after me. I used to read their cases and profile them - it's how they worked out how good I was." Hermione volunteered the information with ease - using her own past to change the subject from Ginny's which told Fleur that the deception specialist had been telling the truth and Hermione wanted to protect her from questions. "Carrow was impulsive," Hermione continued," And fearless. She had a hot temper and followed her gut - even when it wasn't the smart thing to do."

Fleur had suspected that Carrow's personality had undergone major changes in the past few years but, even so, she was struggling to see the connection between the woman that her girlfriend was describing and the Auror that was sitting in the kitchen. The additional information sent her brain into overdrive as she connected dots and compared the differences between the past Carrow and the present Carrow.

* * *

Harry arrived ten minutes later and Fleur had never been more glad for an interruption in her life.

The NEWT practice paper was melting her mind and even Hermione's murmurs of support could have helped the train wreck that Fleur had found herself in.

"Amelia has a case," Harry announced the moment he walked in," An owl just arrived."

"But her team just got back," Luna complained as she loaded her catapult again," There are dozens of teams who can take this case - why assign it to Amelia?"

"I'm the most qualified for the job," Amelia replied as she entered the room moment's after Harry had burst in," And - somewhere along the way - fate decided to make me suffer."

Fleur wondered if the last part was because of the case or because Auror Carrow was hot on her heels. Fleur doubted that Amelia's irritation with her ex-wife was in anyway professional. Carrow was playing in Amelia's court and they clearly had issues that hadn't been aired out just yet.

"I'm going with Auror Bones," Carrow said," If any of you hope to come within twenty feet of a training exercise, let alone a cold case, this year then those practice papers will be finished when I get back."

Ginny threw her had back and laughed mockingly.

"You think that I'm joking, Miss Weasley?" Auror Carrow asked, watching as Ginny bristled at being referred to as such.

"I don't think anything," Ginny replied through gritted teeth," I know that you're telling the truth. But I also know that the DMLE isn't going to let you ground their secret assets from doing their jobs. I wasn't brought here to take an OWL - none of us were. We were brought here because we're useful. I've met your daddy dearest, Auror Carrow, and he only plays by the rules when it's useful for him. He definitely didn't go to the trouble of blackmailing me to be here just to let you clip my wings." Ginny shrugged and her lips curled upwards into a vicious smile. "If you think otherwise then you're lying to yourself."

"You're only useful as long as you aren't a liability," Carrow replied - unperturbed by Ginny's lack of respective," And given your individual histories - some of them criminal - then it wouldn't take much to convince my father that a few of you might be a bigger risk than you're worth.

Ginny was a compulsive liar and had killed somebody before - the fact that it was in self-defence didn't seem to matter to Carrow. Theo had a bundle of issues and a father who had traded him to the program in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Harry grew up in an abusive environment and Andromeda used to watch him to see if he would ever snap and give in to his anger issues. Luna was a kleptomaniac who had aimed her catapult at Auror Carrow's head. Fleur was a quarter-Veela in a country known for their discrimination against those of creature blood. Hermione was the daughter of a murder victim and the niece of two serial killers - one dead and one rotting away in Azkaban.

Carrow could have been talking about anyone of them.

"Ginny," Amelia said in a tone that made it apparent that Fleur wasn't the only one who had a headache," Just humour her and take the test."

"Humour me?" Incredulous seeped into Carrow's tone - her voice rising ever so slightly. "You're telling her to humour me?"

"Ginny already took the test," Hermione intervened quickly," She's a human lie detector and the test that you gave her was multiple choice - she can do this in her sleep."

Fleur supposed that was true. 

Detecting lies was as much about the words people used as the way that they said them. If there was a pattern to the way the test makes wrote the questions - even a subtle difference between the true answers and the false one - then a deception detector like Ginny would find it.

Ginny shot Hermione a dirty look. "You never let me have any fun."

Fleur ignored her and directed the next words that she spoke to Auror Carrow. "You have a case? Work your case and don't worry about us. We'll be fine."

Fleur read between the lines with ease and tightened her grip on Hermione's hand ever so slightly.

_I'll be fine._

That was what Hermione seemed to be saying and, for all her talk of liabilities, it seemed to be the thing that Auror Carrow needed to hear. Fleur studied her for a moment longer.

_You and Amelia saved Hermione._

_You looked after her._

_You cared about her._

_Did you not want her to turn into this?_

Fleur's lips quirked upwards when Amelia's phone vibrated. She was one of the few Aurors who thought that Muggle technology was better than using owls all of the time. She looked at Carrow. "If you're done here then we should get going - local law enforcement is contaminating our crime scene the longer we stay here and some idiot thought that it would be a bright idea to talk to the press."

Carrow cursed viciously and Fleur changed her mind about the makeup and the nail polish and the way that she dressed and talked. None of it was about presenting an image of professionalism to the rest of the world and it wasn't a protective layer to keep the rest of the world out.

Carrow did it all to keep the old her - the Alecto Carrow that Hermione had described - in.

As Fleur thought about it longer, Amelia and Carrow took their leave. The room was filled with tense silence for a moment until everybody had heard the front door slam shut.

Then, the carnage began.

Ginny, Luna, Harry and Fleur bolted for the TV remote.

_'Some idiot thought it would be a bright idea to talk to the press.'_

Amelia wouldn't tell them anything about an active case - not with the ban back in full force - and the Naturals were only authorised to work on cold case. But, if the press had gotten wind of whatever it was then they wouldn't have to rely on Amelia for information.

Luna reached the remote first and tapped it twice with her wand before turning the TV on. It immediately flipped onto the news channel that was specifically for Magical Britain and Fleur was glad that the rest of the country wasn't so far behind in using Muggle technology as the Auror Department was.

"Let's see what Mother and Mummy are up to, shall we?" Ginny asked, eyeing the TV with a smug grin.

"Gin, I will give you one thousand galleons to never refer to Carrow and Amelia as 'Mother' and 'Mummy' ever again," Theo said.

She sent him a look - eyes narrowed as she pondered what he said. "Technically true," She announced to the room," But you're not allowed to dip into your trust fund until you turn nineteen and I'm not really a believer in delayed gratification."

Fleur hadn't even known that Theo had a trust fund.

"Breaking news."

All conversation died the moment that a female reporter came onto the screen. Her backdrop was a building with Roman arches and spires of black marble. Her blonde hair was wind-whipped and her expression was completely serious.

"I'm standing here outside of Glaeferry University of the Arcane, where today, the fifty-eight hundred students who comprise the Glaeferry student body saw one of their own brutally murdered and gruesomely displayed on the university's lawn. Sources say that the girl was bound and tortured before being killed using the killing curse. Local law enforcement are currently investigating every lead before the Aurors arrive. It is also said that Professor Severus Snape is a person of interest."

A picture flashed onto screen briefly of a man with thick, dark hair, an intense gaze and flowing black robes.

"Professor Snape was the previous potions master of Hogwarts before moving to teach at Glaeferry. He teaches an introductory course needed for students to progress into Auror training - Monsters or Men: The Psychology of Serial Murder, the syllabus promises that students will become 'intimately familiar with the witches and wizards behind Wizarding Britain's most horrific crimes ever committed'."

The reporter froze for a moment before nodding once. "I've gotten word that a video of the body, taken from a Muggleborn student's phone shortly after local law enforcement arrived at the scene, has been leaked online. The footage is said to be graphic. We're waiting for a statement from the Aurors that have just arrived on scene. Until then, this is Rita Skeeter, for Daily Prophet News Channel."

Within seconds, the TV had been muted and all six of them had crowded around Luna's laptop. Hermione had pulled Fleur closer to her, detaching their hands and using her arm to curl around her girlfriend's waist. Luna found the video in under a minute and she positioned the screen so they could all see before hitting play. A handheld camera zoomed in on the crime scene.

Fleur paled and swallowed the lump in her throat.

Graphic was an understatement.

* * *

_Her body was a perfect picture._

_Something to be displayed in museums._

_Everybody has seen it._

_Everybody **will** see it._

_They will look at your work and marvel at it._

_You smile as you play with your wand, turning it over in your hands._

_You've done it._

_You killed her._

_Your smile widens as you stretch back on your mother's sofa._

_For once, you're glad that she's like this._

_You're glad that you're at home and not at school._

_You sigh and kick you legs up onto the table._

_You've done it and now the whole world will see what you've become._


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group have a look at the video  
> Hermione gets a shock  
> Ginny's temper is short  
> Moody comes to help

None of them looked away and, again, Fleur was reminded just how screwed up they all were. For Ginny and Harry, it would have been because of morbid curiosity. For Luna, the scene was just an influx of data and variables - angles to be examined and numbers to work out. Theo's hands were working across his sketchpad as he analysed the scene - drawing at rapid speeds all of the different angles that it could be viewed from. But, for Hermione and Fleur, it was different.

It wasn't about the scene.

It was about the body.

There was always a connection between a killer and their victim. To Fleur, the bodies were messages - filled with symbolic meanings that only somebody who understood the needs and desires that went into taking a life, could fully decode.

It was like a whole different language.

Fleur glanced at Hermione and they laced their fingers together before glancing at the screen.

The body was of somebody small with inky black hair. Her skin was lifeless and sallow and her entire had been bound. From the distance the video was filmed at, Fleur couldn't tell if the ropes were conjured or if they were real. Either way, Fleur needed to know. If they were conjured then it was likely that they were the same ropes used to kidnap the girl - a quick and easy why to trap her - but, if they were real, then the killer was the one to tie her up - painstakingly tying every knot, relishing in the power and the control that they had.

The footage cut out suddenly and Luna closed her laptop.

The room descended into a tense silence.

"It was just one murder," Theo said, thinking out loud," Then it's not a serial killer - why would they throw in Amelia?"

"Person of interest teaches a class on serial killers," Fleur replied, mulling it over in her mind," If zat Snape man is involved zen you might want someone wiz expertise in ze area."

Harry hummed slightly. "I remember Snape from Hogwarts," He said," I always thought that he was a bit dodgy - always lurking around corners and being creepy. He had a thing for my Mum, you know."

Fleur wasn't listening as she whipped her head around when she heard Hermione's sharp intake of breath.

" 'Ermione?" She asked," What is it?"

Hermione didn't answer verbally but her body stiffened. She met Fleur's eyes for a fleeting second before she stood up and marched towards the shelves that held all of the killer interviews. She tore through them wildly - throwing them into a pile on the floor. She grabbed one and pulled it out, flipping through it like she was about to die if she didn't.

"Bellatrix Lestrange," She said - her voice coming out strained and her breathing wild," Bind them, brand them, cut them, kill them."

" 'Ermione?" Fleur said tentatively as she stepped forward," Are you okay?"

"I've been better," Her voice was thick with emotion and each word was clipped and short as she slumped down onto one of the chairs nearby," Severus Snape? The creepy potions dude? I'd bet my life that he lectures about a killer called Bellatrix Lestrange, my...my aunt."

"Bind zem, brand zem, cut zem, kill zem," Fleur said softly," Was zat 'ow she killed 'er victims?"

She didn't really need to ask - Hermione's reaction had told her all that she needed to know.

Ginny inched forward slightly - hand outstretched until it nudged against Hermione's knee. "Are you okay?" She asked - with more tact and sympathy than Fleur had ever seen her use before.

Hermione didn't respond and Fleur glanced at her for a moment - struck dumb slightly at the pale face of her girlfriend.

Ginny looked equally worried and her usual uncaring attitude changed in an instant. She was sitting on her knees in front of Hermione - shaking her slightly as her pitch slowly rose. "Hermione," She said, voice panicked," Hermione, are you okay? Hermione! Hermione, come on - talk to me here." She looked around wildly as she searched for anything that could have snapped Hermione out of her shock.

Fleur moved forwards and reached out tentatively, her Thrall spreading outwards to engulf Hermione's body into a protective layer before she lightly touched her girlfriend's hand.

" 'Ermione?" Fleur asked softly.

Hermione jolted out of her shock and wrapped her hand around Fleur's, squeezing tightly enough to ground herself. "Sorry, what?" Her voice was as sharp as a knife's edge and her posture went rigid.

"Are you okay?" Ginny asked softly, resting her hand on Hermione's knee. "You really freaked us out - what's going on?"

Hermione didn't answer. Instead, she turned to look at Fleur. She sighed before leaning into her girlfriend's side - resting her head on Fleur's shoulder.

Ginny looked betrayed at the way that Hermione ignored her in favour of Fleur - as if she had forgotten all about the times that they had spent looking after each other when it was just them in Shell Cottage.

"Are you okay?" Fleur repeated Ginny's question.

"Yeah, yeah, I am."

It was clear as day that it was a lie and Ginny winced slightly at it. She reached out again - ready to bombard the older girls with questions but Hermione got up without another word, leaving the study and the room was silent again.

"That's fucked up," Theo murmured - staring at the closed door," How did she even remember the MO so well?"

Fleur was inclined to agree.

"You don't remember?" Luna asked, brows furrowed in confusion," After learning of her heritage, Hermione spent approximately six hundred and forty-eight hours going over anything she could find on Bellatrix Lestrange. She's embedded itself into her mind now. Hermione couldn't forget even if she tried."

"That's fucked up," Harry echoed Theo's earlier words.

Fleur nodded and made for the door, shoving the practice paper away from her as she stood.

"Where the hell are you going?!" Ginny demanded. She had stayed mostly silence for once but something about Fleur moving had set her off. She didn't need to be an emotion reader to see the anger that was swirling in Ginny's eyes.

"I am going to comfort 'er," Fleur said it like it was obvious," I know zat I would like comfort if zis 'appened to me."

"This isn't about you!" Ginny yelled, snapping entirely. She turned on her heels and stalked towards the door, leaving the other occupants of the room to watch her in varying degrees of confusion and shock. She froze halfway there though and turned back, walking back towards Fleur and poking her in the chest. "You think you what this is doing to Hermione?! You think that you can relate? You don't have any idea what she's going through - none! You don't understand her like I do, you'll _never_ understand her like I do!"

"You're not angry at Fleur," Theo cut in - surprising the Veela at his defence of her," You're angry at what just happened and the fact that Hermione's off somewhere - dealing with this alone."

Ginny's annoyed expression morphed into one of fury and she drew her wand - letting the end of it spark. "Screw you Theo!" She snarled," You can't relate either! She doesn't want you so stop pining and move on already!" Her fury was heavy in the air and she sent a stunning hex to Theo - who just narrowly dodged - before she stormed out of the room.

"It's possible you were mistaken," Luna said as a stunned silence engulfed the room," It seems that she wasn't just angry at the situation."

"Ginny's known Hermione longer than any of us," Harry said," No matter how many people come here, no matter who we are to them - to Ginny, it will always be her and Hermione against the world but to Hermione-"

"She would razzer face ze world alone zen 'ave somebody 'elp 'er."

"Fleur likes Hermione," Luna said suddenly," And Ginny knows that Fleur likes Hermione. I don't think that she minds - I think Ginny thinks that it's funny but, right now...it's not. She knows that Theo likes Hermione as well - she thinks that's funny too and it's not funny in the current social climate."

"What are the chances that Ginny's temper cools off today?" Theo asked - pointedly ignoring Luna's comments about both him and Fleur liking Hermione.

"It's not that simple," Luna said as she pushed her hair out of her face," We're not dealing with a separate variable. Ginny has a temper because of her childhood - it's all connected. Our families, our childhoods, the things that we can do."

Harry and Fleur exchanged a look.

"It's not that we were born with an aptitude for something - we had to hone it our entire lives." Luna's voice decreased in volume. "Muggles have done studies about people like Ginny. I read them - every one of them."

Fleur understood - the way that she always did - without even having to think about it, what Luna was really saying. She read those articles as her way of trying to connect with Ginny. Luna didn't understand people but she did understand numbers and facts and words written on a page.

"Adults with an enhanced ability like that seems to depend on innate ability and explicit training. But with kids, it's different. It's those who have been in changing environments and abusive situations." Her words were slurred together and hurried. "The best deception detectors are kids who aren't submissive - they grow up in abusive homes but somehow fight to maintain some sense of control. Ginny's temper is the same - honed from her previous life. She will calm down when she chooses to stop fighting."

"And Hermione?" Theo prompted.

Luna shrugged. "I don't know. I don't have all the data points like I do with Ginny."

* * *

Hermione found herself on the beach, leaning back against the sand with a bloodied hand resting on her lap.

She decided that it was broken - if the stinging was anything to go by. It wasn't an overwhelming pain; it was more numb than anything else - a testament to how many times she had broken it before.

The first time it had been an accident. It was two days after her mother had died and her first day at Shell Cottage. She had punched the very same tree and broke one of the knuckles in her hand because of it. Alecto had been the one that found her, curled up in a ball and clutching her hand. She had taken Hermione back into the cottage, dried her tears, listened to her sob about how she wanted her mum and fixed up her hand.

The next time had been less of an accident but had played out the same way. Alecto had found her, fixed her up and proceeded to lecture her about punching trees. The cycle continued for the rest of the year - with Hermione punching trees when she got mad or sad and Alecto patching her up. When Alecto left - those memories stung more than her throbbing hand did - Andromeda had been the one who had taken over healing her injuries.

Perhaps that was why Hermione had latched on so easily to the now deceased Auror - because she was doing something familiar to her, something that somebody who was once close to her used to do.

She sighed in annoyance and glanced out across the water.

It was dark now and she wasn't entirely sure how long she had been out there - sitting in silence and trying to sift through her raging thoughts.

_What were the odds?_

_Her Aunt Andromeda starts replicating her mother's murder and then somebody else starts to copy her Aunt Bellatrix's kills?_

"You can't get interested in this case."

"I know," Hermione said - not at all surprised that Moody had been eavesdropping on them.

"What do you know exactly, Hermione?" He asked gruffly as he sat down next to her.

"I know that it's a copycat of Bellatrix Lestrange, I know that she's my serial killer aunt - the older one, not Andromeda. I know that I've learnt my lesson about trying to work a case that could become personal," She replied, eyes looking towards the shore.

Moody nodded - the bare hints of a smile appearing on his face. "Come on kiddo," He said," You had the other's worried about you when you disappeared earlier - best to put their minds at ease." He nodded towards her fist. "Ought to get that looked at as well."

* * *

_The tree was a nice touch._

_You could have dumped her anywhere._

_You didn't have to risk being seen._

_"No-one saw me," You murmur the words with a smug smile," But they saw her."_

_They saw the lines that you carved into her body._

_They saw the noose you slipped around her neck._

_You smile._

_You remember the way that her eyes started to bulge before you hit her with the curse._

_Fragile little arms had tensed against the restraints._

_Her skin was dyed with dainty rivulets of blood._

_Your smile widens._

_The moment has passed._

_But the game is long._

_Next time, you won't be so eager._

_Next time, you won't rush it._

_Next time, you'll have nothing to prove._

_Next time, you'll take it slow._


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hermione and Fleur have a moment.  
> Luna tries to be helpful in her odd Luna-way  
> Theo and Fleur study together

It was just gone midnight when Fleur woke to the sound of her bedroom door opening. At first, she suspected that it was Luna - who had disappeared promptly after Ginny had earlier. She hadn't come to bed either and Fleur gathered that she was probably in the basement.

But, it wasn't Luna that had entered their room.

Hermione was standing sheepishly over Fleur's bed, rubbing the back of her nape nervously and leaning back on her feet as Fleur sat up quickly.

"Hi...I can go, if you want-"

"Come 'ere."

Fleur shuffled to the side of her bed - closer to the wall - and patted the spot next to her in invitation.

"You are 'urt," She said softly as Hermione settled next to her. She reached out to cradle Hermione's bandaged hand close to her chest.

"I'm fine," Hermione assured her," I did something stupid while I was processing things - Moody's not really gifted in healing charms so I have to heal the Muggle way."

Fleur made a slightly annoyed hum of acknowledgement as she pressed a kiss to her girlfriend's knuckles. "Are you okay?"

"In which way?"

"All of zem."

Hermione's lips quirked up into a small smile. "My hand doesn't hurt anymore - if that's what you're saying." At Fleur's pointed look, she sighed and continued speaking," I'll cope."

"You should not 'ave to."

Hermione made a face. "You sound like Alecto."

It was Fleur's turn to make a face - one of utter horror and disgust. "Please do not compare me to 'er - she is a devil."

"She's not that bad."

Fleur refrained from saying anything else as she gently inspected Hermione's hand again - her fingers ghosting over each knuckle and finger.

The silence between them was slightly suffocating and Fleur Thrall tentatively danced around them in uncertainty. Fleur knew that certain topics were off limits no matter what she wanted to say. Asking Hermione about Bellatrix Lestrange was a sure fire way for the girl to leave and Fleur wanted nothing more than curl up around her girlfriend and hug her tightly for the night.

It was Hermione who spoke first.

"I kept the lipstick," She said softly, looking anywhere but Fleur as she rested her head on the other girl's shoulder.

"I know."

"I'm not throwing it away."

"I know," Fleur said again.

Hermione nodded once and some of the tension in her body left. She leaned into Fleur again and reached out to lace their hands together - a little looser than normal but only because Hermione's hand was still a little bit painful.

"I heard what happened with Ginny," She said," I'm sorry - her temper gets the better of her sometimes."

"You do not need to apologise," Fleur pressed a kiss to Hermione's cheek," She was worried about you."

"I know," Hermione said softly," I'm sorry that I worried you all - I just needed to get out of there."

"It is fine," Fleur replied," I understand completely - you needed to collect your thoughts. It is completely understandable."

Hermione looked up at her for a moment, an unreadable look on her face as she studied her girlfriend intently. "I don't deserve you," She said," You're too good for me."

Fleur laughed slightly and shook her head, bringing her girlfriend in for a quick kiss. "It is I who does not deserve you. You tell me such beautiful zings - could you show me ze stars again?" She said softly," Like last time."

Hermione smiled and settled herself comfortably half-on, half-off of Fleur's lap.

With a flick of her wand, the constellations appeared.

* * *

The next morning, Fleur jolted awake and nearly screamed.

Luna was standing over her - face hovering about two inches above her own. Hermione made a noise of discomfort but stayed asleep - burrowing deeper into Fleur's blankets.

"Hypothetically speaking," Luna whispered, wary in case she woke Hermione up," Would constructing a model of the crime scene we saw yesterday be considered insensitive to Hermione's current mental state?"

Fleur almost groaned as she sat up, rubbing her eyes and sighing deeply. "Hypo'zetically speaking," She said as she yawned and ran a hand through her hair," 'Ave you already constructed ze crime scene?"

"Yes."

"Did you sleep at all last night?"

"No."

"Let me get dressed," Fleur said," And do not wake 'Ermione - she deserves longer in bed."

She wasn't surprised when they ended up in the basement.

"I had to make a few adjustments," Luna said as they both stood in front of a set that looked like a normal park," The tree isn't exactly the same height and neither is the grass. Thankfully, the crash dummy is the right size but the rope is the wrong colour and it's nylon - the thickness should match though. They bought the rope and didn't conjure it."

Fleur nodded in appreciation at the information, absorbing it and filing it away.

This killer like to be up and personal - tying the knots themselves.

Fleur looked at the scene again - a near exact replica of the video. On the footage, they had only seen it from one view but now she could look from any angle. The body was tilted slightly to one side and the hands were bound unevenly at the wrist - twisting the body to the left. Fleur closed her eyes and pictured the girl - peeling off her skin and putting on the victim's.

_Height - she was smaller than Fleur was._

_Hair - shorter, cut off at the shoulders and black instead of the Veela's blonde._

_You fought - didn't you?_

_You fought so hard that the bindings cut into your arms._

_You probably screamed - a lot._

_You screamed and fought and swore._

"One end of the rope was tied around her neck," Luna's voice cut through Fleur's profiling haze," The other ran around the tree and was anchored nearby to keep her hanging."

"Ze UNSUB did not do all of zis on ze university grounds," Fleur said, nodding slowly as she inspected the mock-up scene again.

_You fought, didn’t you? Fought so hard that the bindings cut into your arms._

Luna beamed. "Which means that he tortured her and killed her elsewhere. I looked up the maps surrounding the area. There's a road directly south that curves but, if you don't follow the road then you'll be in a forest."

"A forest would provide cover," Fleur said softly - trying to picture the scene in her mind. She wondered if she could get Theo to sketch out her thoughts if she told them to him," 'Ow did ze UNSUB get ze body to ze university?"

"That's an impressive likeness."

Fleur froze and a shiver went up her spine and she turned around to the entrance to the basement. Carrow was walking towards them. She stopped a few metres away from the scene. "What source material was it?"

Luna, oblivious to Carrow's tone, smiled. "There was a video leaked online."

"And what was your involvement in this, Fleur?" Carrow asked, after closing her eyes and mentally counting to ten.

"Moral support," Fleur said - hoping to channel some of Ginny's usual blasé attitude.

"I take it that you came to the same conclusion as the other Aurors did - about Bellatrix Lestrange?" It was phrased as a question but Fleur knew it was anything but.

"Yes," Luna said with her usual lack of tact," Like Hermione's aunt."

"Do you two learn nothing during the summer?" Carrow's voice was cold and it held a sharp edge to it," I could kill the little idiot that leaked that video. This is the last thing that Hermione needed after what happened last summer."

" 'Ow do you now what 'appened in ze summer?"

"I'm not a fool, Fleur," Carrow said," I was once close to Hermione and, as such, I would be stupid not to keep tabs on her. When the Director discovered what Bones was doing with her, using Hermione to solve cases, it almost got Bones fired. It should have gotten her fired. But, the Director and Amelia reached a compromise. Hermione would be given a home and a guardian and training and she would help them with cold cases. Not active cases - of course Bones and Black ignored that with that stupid Time-Turner fiasco. Your lives were never supposed to be on the line." She paused for a moment and Fleur gathered that the look in her eyes was trapped between betrayal and anger. "I looked the other way until what happened during the summer."

Luna stared Carrow down - like she was trying to work her out, running calculations in her head. "What happened last summer wasn't Amelia's fault."

Carrow shrugged. "I don't particularly care about that - the fact is no one has said that you can work on this case. You both need to leave it alone - do you understand me?"

"I understand," Fleur said the words carefully," I know zat we need to leave it alone."

Carrow narrowed her eyes at her and stepped forward. "You need to listen and listen well - whatever you think you know, forget it. If I find that you've gone anywhere near this case again then I don't care who you are to Hermione, whatever relationship that you've cultivated with her - you will be back in France before you can even say 'oops'. Am I clear?"

Fleur's protective instincts flared to life. They didn't usually make themselves known but, in this instant, with her relationship being threatened, they reared their head. "I do not need to be lectured by you - if you really cared about 'Ermione zen you would 'ave been 'ere during ze Andromeda situation. I will not go near zis case but I will not 'ave you insulting me or 'er."

"Glad that we understand each other," Carrow sneered.

Fleur knew that her earlier impression of Carrow had hit the nail on the head.

_This wasn't just a job._

_This was personal._

* * *

"She more or less told me zat she would send me 'ome."

Theo and Fleur were sitting in the living room together in a half-relaxed, half-tense environment. Luna, Hermione, Harry and Ginny had all passed their practice papers with flying colours and, despite the fact that Fleur hadn't taken one and Theo didn't finish his, essays had turned up with their names on them. It seemed though that Ginny was still a little sour from her earlier outburst in the week so the answers on their papers weren't enough for them to actually pass which was why both Fleur and Theo had been forced to the library with strict orders to study.

Theo shrugged as he flicked through the textbook. He didn't look like he particularly cared. "How are you and Ginny?" 

"We are...whatever we usually are. She is not plotting my untimely murder - which, I suppose, is progress."

"Same with me then," Theo replied.

There was a tense air about them and silence descended for a moment or two. It seemed though, that whatever rivalry Theo and Fleur had, the boy put it aside for a few minutes to change the subject back to the new Auror," You really don't like Auror Carrow."

Fleur didn't even reply.

"Fleur, you don't dislike anyone - even me and, to tell the truth, I'm gunning for your girlfriend. But, you've hated Carrow from the moment she showed up."

"She does not like ze program," Fleur said with a huff," She does not like any of us - let alone me."

"She doesn't dislike you as much as you think she does," Moody's voice from behind them had Fleur jolting," Ali likes you as well, Theo. She's fond of Harry and Ginny. She cares about Hermione and Luna reminds her of someone." He glanced at Theo. "Do you mind stepping out for a moment?"

Theo looked happier than ever before. "Luna needed to see me anyway," He said and he gave Fleur a look that made it obvious that while she couldn't act on the case, Carrow had seemed to have forgotten to extend the same to the other Naturals.

Moody waited until the boy left before sitting opposite Fleur at the table. "Do you remember when I explained why this program is kept on cold cases?"

Fleur looked down and her mind cycled back to the Andromeda situation.. "Because on active cases, people always get 'urt."

"Lines get crossed on active cases," Moody said," Everything is life-and-death. You make sacrifices in the heat of the moment."

Fleur knew all about sacrifices. She had been the one to do it - she was the one that had shot Andromeda.

"You are talking about ze DMLE crossing lines," She said.

"Maybe I am," Moddy said," Maybe I'm not."

Fleur allowed the idea to run around her mind. Reading interviews, looking at photos and going through statements was one thing but against a killer, everything was hurried - mistakes could be made.

"It's difficult to balance," Moody said with a nod," But I trust Amelia to keep you safe."

"You trust Carrow too," Fleur replied.

"That I do."

"She tried to ban me from ze basement and she wants to send me 'ome," She pointed out.

Moody shrugged. "Can't win 'em all. She's a good Auror, Fleur - she could teach you a lot."

"I do not need 'er to teach me anyzing - I need 'er to stop being so rude."

"She's a good Auror," He said again.

Fleur scoffed. "If she can catch zat killer zen we will call it even."

"She will," Moody said," So will Amelia."

Fleur moved to leave, hand already on the door when Moody spoke again.

"There's only one case they didn't solve."

* * *

_At first, it felt good._

_Watching the life go out of her eyes._

_Running your thumb across the bloodstained knife._

_Standing over her, your heartbeat accelerating, pounding out a glorious rhythm._

_I did that._

_I did that._

_I did that._

_But now—now, the doubts are starting to worm their way into your brain._

_You can feel them whispering to you in a familiar voice._

_“You were sloppy," It says. “Someone could have seen you.”_

_But they didn’t._

_They didn’t see you._

_You’re better than that._

_You passed this test with flying colours._

_You bound her._

_You branded her._

_You cut her._

_You killed her._

_You did it._

_You’re done._

_But it doesn’t feel like enough._

_You don’t feel like enough._

_Good enough._

_Strong enough._

_Smart enough._

_Worthy._

_If you’d done it right, you’d still be able to hear her screams._

_The press would be giving you a name._

_They’d be talking about you on the news, not her._

_She was nothing._

_No one._

_You made her special._

_But no one even knows you’re alive._


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fleur is dragged to a party  
> Hermione rereads an interview

When Fleur woke up after her talk with Moody, it wasn't because sunlight was streaming through her curtains. In fact, the sun wasn't even up when she blinked awake - hands moving to rub her eyes as something cold was thrown at her face.

"Ginny," Fleur hissed," Stop 'itting me wiz ice!"

Ginny - who for most of the week had been ignoring her after Hermione had chosen Fleur's comfort over hers - popped a piece of ice into her mouth and rolled it around using her tongue. She shrugged before jerking her head out into the hallway, leaving Fleur's only option to follow in confusion. Ginny led her into the bathroom, locking the door and flipping on the light before shoving a light blue shirt - a few shades lighter than Fleur's old Beauxbatons' uniform - into her hands.

Fleur looked at it in confusion before glancing over at Ginny's clothes - black leather trousers, a silver top that was held in place by a piece of cloth around her neck and a new pair of flying boots.

"What are you wearing?" Fleur asked.

Ginny shrugged. "Put that on."

"Why?"

"Because," Ginny drawled, acting like the pair of them hadn't been ignoring each other for most of the week," You can't go to a Glaeferry party while in your pyjamas.

"A party," Fleur echoed before the statement had fully sunken in.

_Glaeferry._

_The crime scene._

"Oh no," Fleur laughed humourlessly," I am not allowed to come near zis case - Carrow made zat clear when me and Luna built a mock-up of ze video."

Ginny shrugged. "Luna built the mock-up," She said," From what I heard, you were just moral support."

Fleur fought not to roll her eyes.

Of course, Ginny had been eavesdropping during that conversation - it was all that she ever seemed to do.

"You are crazy," Fleur said, struggling to make sure her voice was quiet," You want us to sneak out of ze 'ouse, Floo to Glaeferry to attend a party where zere is an ongoing Auror investigation. Forget about Carrow and Moody - Amelia will kill us 'erself. If you 'ad forgotten, Ginny, but 'er career rests on Carrow's report - we are not doing 'er any favours by doing zis." 

"Only if we get caught," Ginny retorted," And unlike certain blondes - I specialise in not getting caught. Besides, we can give Hermione peace of mind after this - it'll help, I promise. The sooner this case is closed, the sooner she gets out of her 'Most-of-my-family-are-bad-people-where-does-that-leave-me' slump. Put on the dress, Phlegm."

"What dress?"

Ginny jerked her chin to the shirt in Fleur's hand. "That dress."

Fleur stared at the shirt then at Ginny before going back to staring at the shirt. "Zat," She said," Is not a dress."

"It's a dress!" Ginny insisted," In fact, because I'm feeling generous, that is now your dress - which you are going to put on without complaining because a bunch of university students are more talkative when you're showing a little leg."

Fleur narrowed her eyes in annoyance - opening her mouth to give Ginny a sharp retort - before she was unceremoniously pushed back against the wall with an angry Ginny glaring at her.

"You're a profiler," She hissed in a dangerously low tone," Hermione is still recovering from what happened in the Summer and now has this copycat of her aunt. You tell me how shattered she will be if the Aurors screw up this case. Can you honestly say that you're a hundred percent sure that we won't pick up on something that they've missed?"

Fleur rolled the thought over in her mind. The Aurors had profilers and interrogators and people that had more experience combined then Fleur would ever have. But they didn't have instincts like she and the rest of the team had. That was the point of the program, she realised with a jolt - the real reason that Moody was worried about the DMLE using them on active cases.

If they started then they wouldn't be able to stop.

"Who do you think uni students are going to get chatty with, Aurors or two scantily clad and very attractive teenage girls?"

Fleur's blood boiled - knowing that Ginny was right.

Nobody would ever suspect that they were part of the investigation

"If Carrow told you that she could close this program then she was lying - that's out of her jurisdiction. At most, she could send somebody home and I will bet all of my savings that she wouldn't be sending you home. I hate to admit it but she and Hermione were close - I don't know when and I don't know how but I know that they were. I also know that Carrow detests what's happened with the Andromeda situation. If anything, she would send Hermione away." Ginny took a step back and sighed deeply. "You say that you care about Hermione," She said," And you want to be there for her. Trust me - this will work."

Fleur sighed and put on the dress.

"Are you sure zat zis is a dress?" She asked again.

Ginny smirked. "It's a dress."

It was times like these that Fleur wished that Ginny wasn't a compulsive liar.

* * *

A profiler, an emotion reader, a sketch artist and a lie detector went to a party.

Fleur wasn't at all surprised when Theo and Harry joined her and Ginny and the Floo network in the basement and she also wasn't surprised that she and Theo were standing at the back of the party, leaning against a wall together,

They were only an hour in and Fleur was already wishing that she had stayed home.

Harry had been working his charm easily and had already identified the people in the room who seemed to be hit the hardest by the murder. There was also several people who were upset for other reasons - including, unrequited crushes and backstabbing roommates. Harry had explained that there was a certain mix of sorrow, fear and fascination that he looked for when he zeroed in on somebody as a person of interest. But, most of the people selected had nothing interesting to say at all.

Theo, from his spot next to Fleur, had muttered under his breath about how there was a certain grip that somebody needed on their wand to do the killing curse - the way the victim had been killed - but he couldn't spot any of the marks on people's fingers as they passed by. When he left her side, he started to play a sympathetic ear to the female portion of the students partying.

Fleur stayed where she was against the wall though, turning her eye to each of the students. It seemed that most of the student body had showed up and it looked like that most of them had been drunk when they had arrived.

"People mourn in their own ways," A boy sidled up to her and she fought the urge to roll her eyes. He was a little taller than six feet and was dressed entirely in black. "We're young - we're not supposed to die early. Getting wasted on cheap alcohol is their misguided attempt at reclaiming the illusion of immortality."

"Zeir attempt," Fleur drawled, emphasising her accent while picking out the phrasing that he had used," But not yours."

“You're French," He said.

Fleur shrugged. "Did you know 'er?" She asked as she took a long sip of the crappy beer that was in her cup.

The boy didn't need her to specify which girl - already piquing Fleur's interest. "She was in my class."

Fleur glanced at him - giving the boy another once over.

He didn't look old enough to be a teacher.

"Which class?"

"Monsters or Men," He replied," Professor Snape's class - I'm his assistant. He's writing a book, you know - I'm helping with the research."

Fleur hummed - not really an answer but enough to keep him talking.

"Did you know her?" He asked," Alicia Spinnet - did you know her?"

Fleur shook her head, silently glad that this boy had given her the victim's name. "Not personally," She said," But a friend of mine is interested in what 'appened to 'er."

"You're not lying," The boy reached out and tucked some of Fleur's hair behind her ear - making her feel sick to the stomach at somebody other than Hermione was doing it. "I consider myself an excellent judge of character." He puffed out his chest.

_You think that you're an excellent judge of everything._

"I could show you this cool lecture," The boy said," If you're interested in what happened to Spinnet."

Fleur met Theo's eyes from across the room and nodded.

* * *

**Lestrange: You want me to say that I tied them up so they'd stay. But did you ever think that maybe I just like the way a woman's skin looks when she struggles against the rope before I torture her? Maybe I like watching white lines appear on their wrists and ankles - watching their hands and feet go numb. Maybe I enjoyed watching their muscles tense and fight themselves bloody. Can you imagine, Miss Bones? Can you?**

**Bones: And branding them? Are you going to tell me that that wasn't a mark of ownership? That owning them and controlling them wasn't the point?**

**Lestrange: Who said that there was a point? I certainly didn't. You know, when I was younger, my father always told me that there was something wrong with me - a few shade off being perfect. I had to learn how to hide it. I charmed everyone, my sisters, the other purebloods, my _victims_. I charmed my way into getting a husband. Did you know that, Miss Bones?**

**Bones: Did you love your husband?**

**Lestrange: I made him what he was - without me he was nothing.**

**Bones: And then he died and you got angry. What did you do after that?**

**Lestrange: Why don't you ask your wife? She's a pretty thing, isn't she? But the mouth on that one...she has such a dirty mouth...**

Hermione felt sick to the stomach at the reference to what happened to Alecto and slammed the file closed.

It was late - the moon already high in the sky. She had been tossing and turning in bed, unable to sleep. It had all led her to the study where all of the case files were sitting. She had already sat down with the file before she even realised what she was doing.

But now, she could do nothing but stare at it.

She could envision it clearly. She had seen pictures of Bellatrix Lestrange - given to her by Narcissa, who regaled her with stories of growing up with her sisters, and pictures that Hermione had found from old newspaper clippings.

Bellatrix and Andromeda could have been twins. They both had the same lips, the same hair, the same nose. They would have looked completely identical if it had not been for the wild look in Bellatrix's eyes that had been present even in her childhood.

Hermione didn't know which one was worse - Bellatrix's wild eyes or Andromeda's deadly calm.

Hermione's hand tightened around the lipstick in her pocket at the thought of Andromeda.

She couldn't help drawing comparisons between her two serial killer aunts.

_Did they know what the other was doing?_

_Did they cover for each other?_

She shivered in disgust and returned the file back to the shelf with a flick of her wand.

She didn't know what she hoped to accomplish by reading through the old testimonies and interviews. When she was younger, Alecto had often called her self-destructive and now, as Hermione reached for another file, she understood what the Auror meant. Reading the files was doing nothing but reminding Hermione just how powerless she really was. She could do nothing but read the way that the events had played out just as she could do nothing but watch how they played out with this new case.

She sighed again and snapped the new file closed just as she heard the tell-tale sound of the Floo activating.

* * *

The boy introduced himself at Terry Boot and Fleur was certain that he wasn't the UNSUB.

He was so high on himself that she couldn't imagine him needing to feel the validation of a kill.

Then again, she also hadn't sensed that need in Andromeda.

"Hope that we're not late."

Theo walked in with a girl on his arm. She was tall with hair halfway between blonde and brown. She was built like a Quidditch player.

"Bell."

"Boot."

Terry sighed deeply before flashing Fleur a smile. "Alecto, this is Katie. Katie, meet Alecto."

Fleur thought to keep the smile from showing on her face. Theo had followed her with reinforcements. Reinforcements who knew Boot and, unless she was mistaken, didn't like him at all.

"Nice to meet you," Fleur said.

“Boot," Katie said, refusing to use his first name in an attempt to antagonise him," This is Alastor - we're here for the show."

Theo and Fleur didn't look at each other - struggling to keep in their laughs. She had chosen to use Carrow's name as an alias and he had chosen to use Moody's.

"You weren't invited." Terry's voice was flat as he spoke.

Katie shrugged and slipped into the seat next to Fleur. "I doubt that you'd want Snape to know that there was a show."

A flicker of anger appeared on Terry's face before he turned to Fleur again. "Katie is in my class."

She nodded along, trying hard to keep her annoyance from showing too clearly.

Terry grinned before he waved his wand and murmured a long and complicated spell. "Welcome to the Introductory Course needed to get into Auror Training - Monsters or Men: The Psychology of Serial Murder." 

Terry's voice carried across the room and Fleur chose not to focus on him but the man that he was channelling.

She didn't know much about Severus Snape apart from the few things that she had picked up in passing. Snape seemed to be a bit of a storyteller and had a fascination in potions and murder - a fascination that Fleur was sure, that the professor thought that the rest of the wizarding world shared.

Body, after body, after body flashed across the wall in rapid succession.

The pictures disappeared and were replaced by a woman with curly brown hair and sharp grey eyes.

Fleur's skin crawled.

"Bellatrix Black Lestrange," Terry said," I've studied the Lestrange case for the past four years."

Fleur wasn't listening - not properly - as she searched the picture for any semblance of her girlfriend.

_They had the same hair._

_The same nose._

_The same lips._

"By I," Katie whispered to Theo," He means Snape."

Terry ignored her.

"Bellatrix is responsible for a minimum of a dozen murders over a seven year period. The bodies were recovered from Lestrange manor over a three-day excavation period after her arrest."

A crime scene photo flashed up onto the screen.

_A woman._

She was hanging, bound by ropes with cuts littered all over her body. Fleur's eyes roved over the picture before focussing on her shoulder - just below the collarbone.

The skin was blistered and red - in the unmistakeable shape of a B.

"Bind them, brand them, cut them, kill them. That was Lestrange's modus operandi - or MO."

Fleur's body started to shake with rage after hearing the technical terms roll out of his mouth. He didn't know what he was talking about - not really. The pictures were just pictures to him. He didn't know what it was like to crawl into the mind of a killer, picking apart their every motive and desire.

He was a little boy playing at something that he didn't understand.

"Coincidentally," Katie said," That's also the title of Snape's book."

"Book?" Theo echoed," What book?"

“On the Bellatrix case," Terry cut in - clearly he didn't like having his spotlight being taken away. "That's why he's a person of interest - she was branded too."

"You said she was in this class - you knew her." Fleur's voice was flat and a little bit judgemental. The fact that Terry could talk so casually about the murder of a girl that he knew made her reconsider her earlier idea - perhaps Terry was capable of murder.

"I know her," Katie announced," We went through Hogwarts together. She was always really perky - even in a class about serial killers."

"Alicia didn't show up for the exam," Terry said," Professor Snape was out sick. Alicia was the only one who didn't show up. I thought she was..."

"You thought that she was what?" Theo asked, cocking his head to the side.

Terry narrowed his eyes. "Why does it matter."

_It mattered - that was obvious._

Theo just shrugged, taking his phone out and reading a message. "Oh, crap," He said," I should go."

Katie just nodded - clearly, she was going to be pining after him anytime soon.

Theo turned towards the door. He mouthed one word at Fleur.

_Ginny._

“I should go too," She said," Zat was...intense."

“You're leaving?" Terry sounded surprised although Fleur couldn't understand why. Apparently, he had been under the impression that he had it in the bag.

_Dead girl._

_Freaky lecture._

_Sensitive eyes._

"Tell you what," Fleur said," 'Ow about I give you my number?"

* * *

_Bellatrix Lestrange is one of the greats._

_Infamous._

_Ingenious._

_Immortal._

_You chose her for a reason._

_When somebody like Lestrange speaks, people listen._

_When Lestrange wants someone dead, they die._

_She is everything you want to be._

_Powerful._

_Smart._

_Confident._

_Always in control._

_“You were sloppy. Stupid. Lucky.”_

_You banish the voice and run your fingers along the edges of a photograph of Alicia Spinnet standing next to a tree._

_Proof that for a moment, you were powerful._

_Smart._

_Confident._

_In control._

_Just._

_Like._

_Her._

_Bellatrix Lestrange is not your hero._

_She's your god._

_If you continue down this path then you'll slowly remake yourself in her image._

_The rest of the world will be as insignificant and powerless as ants._

_The Aurors._

_The DMLE._

_You’ll crush them under steel-toed boots._

_What will be will be—in time._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kind of said 'fuck canon ages' and rolled with it  
> I have no regrets


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fleur and Theo meet up with Ginny.  
> Harry gets caught by Hermione.  
> Carrow and Amelia need Hermione to do something.

Ginny's text didn't lead them back to the party.

"What exactly did she say?" Fleur asked after she had had enough of the silence between them.

Theo tossed her his phone. 

Fleur studied the picture that accompanied the text - an off centre photo with Ginny and two boys, one tall and one more rounded.

" 'Aving a fascinating chat - 'Arry went 'ome, felt sick," She read aloud," Griffin Building, roof." She paused for a moment and raised a singular eyebrow. "Why is she on a roof?"

"Interrogating suspects who don't know that she's doing that?" Theo suggested," She does it a lot."

" 'Ow big of a chance zat ze boys in ze picture are not suspects? Maybe zey are just friend's wiz Alicia."

Fleur wanted to believe that Ginny had enough intelligence to not go off alone with someone she thought might be capable of murder - especially if Harry had disappeared back home.

"She sent a picture," Theo grunted.

_In case something happened._

_Ginny sent them a picture of the boys she was with in case they got to the Griffin Building and she was already gone._

Fleur winced slightly, knowing that she shouldn't have left the party without telling Ginny.

Ginny did a good impression of somebody who could take care of herself but, Fleur knew that Ginny could do a good impression of just about everything.

Fleur knew that Hermione wouldn't have left Ginny at the party. That was the reason that Ginny would walk through fire for her - and why Theo and Fleur, even Harry, didn't make the cut.

She started to walk a little faster.

"She'll mock us for worrying," Theo said, a dangerous edge to his voice," Either that or she'd take it as a personal insult." He picked up his pace until they were both almost jogging. "Harry'll kick himself for leaving her when he finds out."

Fleur just nodded - increasing her pace again.

Ginny was one of theirs.

She had to be okay

_Please be okay._

* * *

Harry stumbled through the Floo clutching his head.

He had a pounding headache and he had left the party with barely a goodbye to Ginny. He had gotten all the way back to the Floo point when he realised that that wasn't the best course of action.

Ginny could be temperamental when she was left alone - more so when it was Harry who had done the abandoning.

"Where did you go?"

Harry let out a particularly high pitched scream that he would never admit to making. He jumped slightly as he glanced around the basement.

Hermione was half hidden in the shadows, arms crossed over her chest and brow raised in question.

Harry took a few steps back and swallowed the lump in his throat.

"N-Nowhere?" It sounded more like a question than anything else.

"Oh?" Hermione scoffed as she stepped forward," And I suppose that you caught the Floo from your bedroom then?"

Harry still didn't respond. He winced slightly - mentally chastising himself for coming up with such a bad excuse.

"Where did you go?" Hermione asked again - more tired than before.

"Glaeferry," Harry replied.

"The scene of the crime," Hermione said," Why did you go?"

"There was a party," Harry admitted," We went to get some more information."

"We?" Hermione asked.

"Theo and Ginny."

"And Fleur is with them?" She asked.

"Yes," Harry admitted, not looking her in the eyes.

Hermione looked him over. "If Fleur gets hurt," She said, voice cold," Then I'll kill you myself."

* * *

The first thing that Fleur heard when she climbed onto the roof of Griffin Building was Ginny laughing. It was airy and light and almost certainly a lie.

Ginny spotted them easily. She launched herself into Fleur's arms like she was drunk - even though the Veela knew that she wouldn't have been that stupid considering where they were. "You made it!" She exclaimed before lowering her voice," If anybody asks, my name is Amelia."

She turned back to the boys and Fleur joined her.

_Of course, they had all chosen the names of the adults they lived with._

"Cormac, Marcus, this is..." Ginny hiccupped and Theo took the cue to introduce himself.

"I'm Alastor," He said before jerking his thumb back at Fleur," And this is Alecto."

The boy on the left was tall and handsome in the classical kind of way. Fleur sighed inwardly - she was getting sick and tired of playing nice with boys - as she watched him flex when he shook her hand.

"I'm Cormac," He said," Cormac McLaggen."

The boy on the right shook her hand as well. "Marcus Belby," He said.

Fleur assessed him. 

His handshake was firm but his hands were soft. In fact, soft was the best way to describe him. He was small and round and looked like he'd been made out of clay that hadn't set correctly. His skin was blotchy and it took him a little under a minute to actually meet her eyes.

"Cormac and Marcus knew the girl." Ginny made sure to slur her words as she leaned into Cormac's chest. The boy puffed himself up and nodded at Fleur over Ginny's head - like her presence was proof that the Veela should want to be there too.

Fleur was officially never wearing this dress again unless, of course, her darling girlfriend requested i of her.

"What girl?" She asked

"The girl that got killed," Cormac replied," Cia."

"Alicia," Marcus muttered.

"Huh?"

"Her name was Alicia," Marcus said.

Cormac shrugged. "That's what I said." He turned to Fleur again. "She was in our class."

Fleur nodded slowly before making a face like she had just remembered something. "I zink zat I met your professor's assistant tonight."

"That guy's an idiot."

"He is really into murder," She remarked," And ze way zat 'e talked about Alicia - it was like 'e did not even care."

"Boot thinks that wearing black is a good substitute for genuine intelligence. I bet he told you that he knew Alicia - he didn't. He just sits up front and grades essay. Marcus and I, we knew her. Bell and Johnson - they knew her. Hell, even Snape knew her but Boot certainly didn't - he just wants to feel more important than he actually is."

"What do you mean that Snape knew her?" Theo asked," Isn't it a pretty big class?"

Cormac turned his attention to Theo, who, for most of the conversation, had sulked in the shadows. Whatever he saw in Theo's eyes, he liked but - given Theo's background as a pureblood socialite - Theo had probably known dozens of Cormacs growing up.

"When I say that ol' Snape knew Cia, I mean that he really _knew_ her, if you know what I mean."

Fleur glanced at Ginny, who nodded.

_Cormac was telling the truth._

"The dead girl was involved with the professor?" Theo asked," That's the kind of thing that would get Snape fired."

"No kidding," Cormac scoffed," Person of interest - try he did it." He laughed lowly. "He did her and then he killed her.

“Shut up," Marcus muttered as he clenched his hands into fists," You don't know what you're talking about. Alicia hated Snape's guts, she wouldn't...She wouldn't have slept with him."

"Whoa there, Belby," Cormac continued," I get it - don't speak ill of the dead and all that bullshit. But, I promise you, once the Aurors find Snape, the uni's gonna be looking for a replacement. The guy's guilty - I hope they don't hand over the class to Boot."

Ginny met Fleur's eyes.

She met Theo's eyes.

Theo and Fleur exchanged a look.

They'd gotten what they came for - that and more.

* * *

"That went better than I thought it would," Ginny said as they walked to the nearest Floo point," if we can sneak back in without getting caught then I'm calling it a win."

"I zought zat you never got caught."

Ginny shrugged. "We live in a house with an active Auror and a retired Auror. I'm stealthy, Phlegm, not a miracle worker. Call it an acceptable risk."

Fleur sighed and rolled her eyes - it was a very different tune that Ginny had been singing when she talked Fleur into their little adventure.

"Are you not glad that you came?" Ginny asked, despite already knowing the answer," Would you not do this all over again?"

"What did you zink of the assistant?" Fleur asked Theo. He wasn't a profiler but a second opinion was always welcome in this kind of investigation.

"Yeah," Ginny said, fanning herself," Do tell - what did you think of the assistant who was such a promising lead that Fleur left the party without even a goodbye?"

Fleur winced slightly - this was the first time that Ginny had referenced the fact that they'd left her. She tossed the words out like she wasn't bothered.

"Don't take out the fact that Harry left on us," Theo muttered before shrugging," Assistant guy had scars all over his hands and up his neck - he was looking at her like she was specimen to dissect. You really think that I should have let him take her off alone?"

"I'm just surprised." Ginny shrugged," I mean, following after Fleur worked out _so well_ for you the last time."

"Stop it Ginny," Theo said, deadly calm," Your temper is going to get the better of you again. Do you remember how well that worked out for _you_ the last time?"

* * *

" 'Chapter Four: Organised vs Disorganised Offenders'," Fleur read aloud.

The day after the party had Fleur, strangely, feeling more energised than the previous day.

That, of course, had all come crashing down when she found that Carrow had left her and Hermione to read a textbook on profiling. Frankly, Fleur found that a little insulting but, with Carrow working a case, she had nobody but Hermione to complain to.

Her girlfriend reached across the table and pulled the textbook away from her. "My turn," She said with a small, amused smile," If you read another chapter then you're going to be miming things by the end."

"Fine," Fleur huffed with a smile of her own," You teach me zen - you already know zis stuff. Tell me what zis chapter will say."

It was a challenge and Hermione's smile turned into a grin as she nestled into Fleur's side - the Veela's Thrall wrapping them both in a protective layer.

"Okay," Hermione took a breath as she thought over her words," Let's start with disorganised killers. They're loners, poor social skill, lots of pent-up anger. They're likely to be the ones that don't quite fit in - those that the general public would shy away from."

Fleur pondered the words for a moment. Her brain automatically conjured the best person to fit the description.

_Marcus Belby._

Hermione paused - brow raised in confusion at whatever she saw on Fleur's face. The Veela just smiled and reached for Hermione's hand - squeezing it slightly.

"In their day-to-day lives, disorganised killers are generally seen as antisocial and inept," Hermione continued, looking at Fleur in slight confusion," If they have a job, it's likely to be low-paying and low on respect. Statistically, they're more likely to still live with one or more parent."

Again, Fleur thought over the words.

Being antisocial and inept didn't _make_ someone a killer. Those traits couldn't tell her whether or not Marcus had the potential for violence. All they could tell Fleur was what kind of killer the boy would be if he was a killer.

If Marcus ever stepped over that line then he would be a disorganised killer.

"Organised killers, on the other hand, can be charming," Hermione continued," They're confident and comfortable in most social situations. They tend to be intelligent but narcissistic. Some are incapable of feeling fear."

Fleur's mind immediately turned to Terry Boot - who had lectured her on the meaning of modus operandi and mentioned Alicia Spinnet without any grief.

"To organised killers, other people aren't worthy of empathy because, to them, other people are less. To an organised killer, being average is the same as being disposable. They feel no remorse for their victims." Her voice went flat suddenly. "What's the life of one more person when the world is full of so many?"

Fleur took in the words and made an effort to memorise them. It didn't sound like Hermione was talking. If anything, she was reciting them. It made Fleur wonder who had told them to her - whether it was Andromeda or Carrow.

"Organised killers plan, disorganised killers do it in the spur of the moment."

"Zey snap," Fleur continued," Or give in to zeir impulses."

Hermione's fingers curved around Fleur's despite the pain that she was feeling. "They're more likely to attack from behind than an organised killer."

"Weapon choice?" Fleur inquired, holding Hermione's hand as tight as she dared.

"Anything close by," Hermione supplied," Usually a knife, blunt force trauma, their own hands. If they have their wand then it's the first spell that comes to mind - usually stunning. It only takes ten stunners to kill a person. Their crime scenes reflect a loss of control."

"But for organised killers, it is all about control," Fleur continued.

Hermione held her hand a little tighter and Fleur knew who she was thinking about. "Organised killers stalk their victims. Every move they make is calculated, premeditated and in service of a particular goal. They're methodical."

" 'Arder to catch," Fleur said.

"They like that," Hermione returned," Killing is only part of the game - getting away with it is the real pleasure."

Strangely, everything that Hermione was saying made perfect sense to Fleur - almost as if her girlfriend was simply reminding her of something that she had always known, rather than teaching her something new.

"Organised killers are ze one who take trophies," Fleur said before she could stop herself.

_Andromeda had been an organised killer._

"Yeah...they do...It-It helps them relive the kills - helps them to sate their desire to kill in-between victims."

Fleur let go of Hermione's hand and reached her arm around the other girl's shoulders before pulling her into a tight hug. Hermione buried her head into Fleur's neck.

"Fleur, can we talk to Hermione alone for a minute?" 

Fleur turned to look behind her. 

Amelia and Carrow were standing in the doorway - dressed in their formal robes. Amelia straightened her tie and Fleur's Thrall turned icy in an instant. That particular gesture from that particular woman, set off alarm bells in her mind. Amelia rarely wore the tie unless she was on duty.

Whatever she wanted to talk to Hermione about, was Auror business.

Fleur trusted Amelia less when business was involved and she tightened her grip on Hermione ever so slightly.

"She can stay," Hermione pulled away from Fleur - eyebrow raised at the Aurors in challenge.

Amelia studied her for a moment before nodding. She sat down at the table.

"What did you need?"

As Carrow sat down at the table next to her ex-wife, she stiffened - reaching out for Hermione's hand with a questioning look on her face.

Hermione gave it to her without arguments.

"The person who killed Alicia Spinnet is obsessed with Bellatrix Lestrange," Amelia said," There's a very real chance the UNSUB has written to her."

As she spoke, Fleur watched as Carrow unwound the bandage around Hermione's hand. Her knuckles were split down to the bones and the rest of her hand was severely bruised. Worry was clear on Carrow's face as she took out her wand and methodically started to heal the girl's hand - starting with setting the broken knuckles then sealing the cuts and, finally, healing the bruises.

"And let me guess," Hermione interrupted," She destroys the letter once she's read them. She's an Occlumens so you can't take out the memories even if you wanted to. They're all in her head."

"She's agreed to assist us," Amelia said," But only on one condition."

Hermione drew her hand back from Carrow and reached down to lace her fingers with Fleur's. Fleur seemed to work out what the condition was moments after Hermione did.

“You don't have to do anything you don't want to do," Carrow cut in - throwing a glare at Amelia.

"I know what the condition is," Hermione said softly," She won't tell you anything - she wants to talk to me." She swallowed thickly and squeezed Fleur's hand. "The only question is how she even knows of my existence - I haven't written to her and Narcissa is banned from doing so. Who told her about me?"

* * *

_Death is a curious thing._

_It's what keeps people awake at night - thinking about what happens when they die._

_You've never been one of those people._

_You've always wondered more about what it looks like to kill someone._

_And now you've done it._

_You'd fantasized about it a few times._

_What it would be like._

_How you would feel._

_You thought that you had thought of everything._

_Apparently, you didn't._

_You didn't think about how much it would make you crave it._

_You didn't think that you would get the burning urge again._

_You like it - the urge, the need._

_You don't mind it as much as you thought you would._

_It starts to consume you._

_You liked the branding._

_The warmth in your hands felt good._

_You liked the cutting._

_The blade glinted in the light._

_You liked the torturing._

_It's a wonder what the Cruciatus curse can do._

_You liked the killing._

_Watching the light leaving her eyes was the best part._


	8. Chapter 8

Fleur's first impression of Azkaban prison was that the British clearly had moved on from World War Two. 

Stone walls.

Barbed wire.

Separated from society completely

Wards surrounding the perimeter - keeping both guards and prisoners in.

"Bellatrix Lestrange isn't a favourite among the human guards here," Carrow commented as she stood on the other side of the two-way mirror with Fleur," She has a fondness for mind games and a penchant for picking up information about the guard's families. Hell, even the dementors don't like going near her cell. Bones had to tell them that Hermione was Lestrange's niece - it would have been impossible to get the visit approved even with permission from on high."

Fleur stilled slightly from where she sat at a table, watching the interrogation. "Your fazzer approved zis visit?"

"It was his idea."

" 'E wants zis case closed," Fleur commented," Ze Andromeda case made ze papers. Ze last zing 'e wants is more bad press. Ze Director wants zis case to go away quickly and quietly and 'e is not above using 'Ermione to do it. But, if it were up to you-"

"If it were up to me," Carrow snapped," Then Hermione would never come within a hundred yards of anyone in the Black family. Not Narcissa Malfoy, not Andromeda's daughter and certainly not Bellatrix Lestrange. If it were up to me then Hermione would have gotten her chance at a normal childhood."

"Tell me about the letters," Hermione ordered from where she sat in the interrogation room.

Fleur glanced back at the two-way mirror.

"Which letters?" Lestrange replied with a grin on her face," The ones that curse me to hell and back? The one from the families of my victims, describing their journeys towards forgiveness? The ones from my rabid female fans? The ones that propose marriage?"

"The one from the professor," Hermione countered, her face completely blank," The one who's writing the book."

"Ah," Lestrange said," Snape, I believe it was? Oily hair, never heard of shampoo, overly fond of Dark Curses?"

"So, he's been to visit you," Hermione continued," What did he ask you?"

"There are only two questions, Hermione," Lestrange smiled fondly and Fleur was reminded of the expression a cat would make two seconds before it pounced," Why and how?"

"And what kind of person was the professor?" Hermione pressed," Was he more interested in the why or the how?"

"Little of column A, little of column B," Lestrange replied, leaning forward," Why the sudden interest? Afraid that he might not get your part right when he tells our story?"

Hermione stiffened. "We don't have a story," She said," This is the first time that I've met you."

Lestrange made a face that Fleur couldn't quite understand. "My story is your story - just as you're my blood, no matter how distant our relation is. If you want to know what the professor was writing and what he's capable of then I suggest that you ask him yourself."

"I will," Hermione said," So tell me where he is."

"For Merlin's sake, Hermione, I can't just owl the man. We aren't friends. He interviewed me a few times. He asked the questions, I answered them - simple as that."

Hermione stood to leave.

"But," Lestrange added," He did mention that he does most of his writing in a cabin in the mountains."

"What mountains?" Hermione asked.

Lestrange gestured her manacled hands towards the seat in front of her and Hermione sat back down.

"My memory needs some refreshing."

"What do you want?" Hermione asked, slightly weary.

"You," The woman replied. Her eyes roved over Hermione like an artist surveying their work. "I want to know about you, Hermione. In a different world, when your mother died, I would have been looking after you - first born privilege and all that shit. What have those hands been doing since you were born? What sights have those eyes seen?"

Fleur felt a little sick. There was something disconcerting about listening to Hermione's aunt break her body down into parts.

_Hermione is just a thing to you._

_She's just a body - hands, eyes._

_Something to mould._

_Something to own._

"I'm not here to talk about me," Hermione pointed out.

Her aunt shrugged. "And I can't seem to remember if Snape's cabin was in Scafell Pike or Ben Nevis."

"I don't know what you want me to say," Hermione admitted in a quiet voice after a few seconds of reflection," I broke my hand a few days ago - is that the type of thing you want to know?"

"Excellent start," Lestrange said, lips curling up into a feral grin. She leaned even closer.

From the other side of the mirror, Fleur watched as Carrow took a step closer to the glass - to Lestrange.

"Now, let's get a bit more personal here, pet," Lestrange continued. She was perfectly at ease with herself," Music. Sports. A motorcycle - do you like those? I have to admit, Muggles did a good thing with them." She glanced at Hermione's face. "Maybe not then. A boy - do you have a boy back home?" She studied the girl in front of her. "I suppose not...A girl then - not that I'd blame you, women are the most _delightful specimens._ Do you have a pretty girl?"

"There's no-one," Hermione lied.

Lestrange wasn't convinced. "Ah, so there is a girl."

"There's no-one," Hermione said again.

"Methinks you doth protest too much, dear niece of mine."

"I'm not your niece."

Lestrange's hands shot out and she was on her feet. Hermione must have been leaning forward because, somehow, Lestrange managed to get a hold of her shirt. "You are my niece, more than you were ever _Andromeda's_ and more than you will ever be Cissy's. You're mine."

Fleur was on her feet in seconds. She moved quicker than ever before until she was standing level with Carrow - pressed against the glass with a budding growl in her throat and feathers sprouting across her hairline. Carrow stared at her in shock as Lestrange kept talking.

"You're just like me, pet. I can see it. I'm in you, in your blood, in your mind, in every breath you take it." Lestrange's face was close to Hermione's and both of them were fixing the other with the same identical sneer. "You know it - so stop lying to yourself."

Hermione watched the other witch for a beat as she clenched her fists so tight at her side that her knuckles turned white.

Amelia pushed Lestrange back - wand at the deranged woman's neck. Lestrange held her hands up in submission.

_You never really submit._

_You never give up._

_You never given in._

_You get what you want - and you want Hermione._

"We're going," Carrow snapped," Fleur - _now."_

Fleur didn't want to leave but, then again, she knew that she didn't have a choice in the matter.

She followed Carrow out of the room.

The last thing she heard was Hermione's voice - empty and hard. "Tell me about the professor's cabin."

* * *

"This was a mistake," Carrow said as the pair of them waited back on the mainland - pacing up and down the coast with Azkaban in the distance.

"What was?" Fleur asked.

"Bringing you here, bringing Hermione here, staying in that room, watching that. All of it."

Fleur got the feeling that the Auror wasn't just referring to the way that Amelia and the Director had chosen to handle the case. She meant the life that Hermione was living, the Naturals program - all of it.

"It is not ze same," Fleur said," What we do as a team and what zey are 'aving 'Ermione do in zere wiz Lestrange - it is not ze same."

_That wasn't what the program was._

_That wasn't what the Naturals did._

"You should 'ave seen 'Ermione when we found out zat Amelia 'ad recovered Maria Glossop," Fleur said, thinking of that Hermione - her Hermione," She did not just smile, she beamed. Did you know zat she 'as dimples?"

Carrow didn't reply but Fleur knew that she was listening.

" 'Ermione was never going to 'ave a normal child'ood," She continued, unsure of why she wanted Carrow to understand that," Zere are zings you do not come back from. Normal is not an option for any of us." She thought of Luna's explanation of their abilities. "If we 'ad normal child'oods zen we would not be Naturals."

Carrow stopped her pacing to make eye contact with Fleur. "Are we talking about Mia's mother or her aunt?"

"She is 'Mia' now?" Fleur asked, brow furrowing," You 'ave been calling 'er 'Ermione since you arrived."

"Is there a problem with that?"

“No." Fleur paused. "But you know zat you probably call 'er by 'er name. You do not like nicknames - zey bring you closer to people."

Carrow ran a hand through her hair. "You're going to have to learn to stop that," She said.

"Stop what?"

"Most people don't like being profiled - some things are better left unsaid." She paused for a moment before clearing her throat. "Where were you last night?"

The question came out of nowhere and Fleur's heart started to thump.

She furrowed her brow. "What do you mean?"

"You think that I dislike you." Carrow had switched into her profiler voice and Fleur swallowed thickly. "You see as the enemy - I'm not the enemy here."

"You 'ave a problem wiz ze program," She said," You 'ave a problem wiz what is going on and you 'ave a problem wiz me."

"My problem with you is that you don't do what you're told," Carrow replied," All of your instincts are useless if you can't work in the system. Amelia never understood that and neither do you."

"You are talking about what 'appened in ze summer," Fleur said," I get it - Theo got 'urt because of me and so did 'Ermione." She swallowed the lump in her throat.

"Where were you last night?" Carrow asked again. Fleur didn't answer. "Last summer, you and your friends hacked into a secure drive and read through case files for no reason other than boredom. Amelia told you to back off, you didn't. You wanted in on the case and Andromeda obliged."

"So it is my fault?" Fleur asked. She was stuck between wanting to cry and and wanting to hex the Auror in front of her - terrified that the woman was right. "Ze people Andromeda killed, just to send 'Ermione zeir 'air. Ze girl she kidnapped. Ze fact zat me and Theo got attacked - zat is all on me."

"No." Carrow's voice was hard. "None of it was your fault, Fleur, but the rest of your life, you will wonder if it was. It will haunt you - what you had to do, putting her down. You think I look at you and see your creature blood. If I believed even half of the bullshit that most blood purists spout about creatures then we wouldn't be having this conversation."

"Zen why are we 'aving zis conversation? You say zat I do not work in ze system but do not tell me zat you zink ze ozzers do. You do not look at zem like you look at me."

"Because they're not me!" Carrow snapped. 

They stared at each other in silence for a moment before Carrow sighed, shaking her head in exasperation.

"When you break rules and tell yourself that the end justifies the means then people get hurt. Protocol exists to save lives. Do you want to know why you, in particular, concern me? You feel everything. Harry, Ginny and Hermione all learnt very early on in life to lock away their emotions and throw away the key. Theo's family are blood purists, did you know this? He knows when to not voice his thoughts. Luna cares, she does, but she deals in facts and not emotions. But you? You don't stop caring. You care about everything and everyone."

Fleur looked away.

"I'm glad that Hermione has somebody like you to lean on during this time. But, if you're serious about doing what I do then emotions are a luxury you cannot afford. They're a recipe for getting somebody killed."

Fleur read between the lines just as easily as she always did.

_Carrow had lost someone._

_She had gotten emotionally involved in a case._

_In the heat of the battle, she got somebody killed_

"That's why I need to know where you were last night."

Fleur didn't respond. She knew that she probably should but it wasn't just her secret to tell.

She wasn't going to implicate Ginny, Harry and Theo.

"Amelia doesn't know you snuck out and neither does Moody. I bet that you've never seen him angry - I have. I don't recommend it."

Fleur remained silent.

Carrow sighed. "Just tell me this - is there anything I should know?"

"Alicia was involved wiz ze professor - zat Snape man."

Carrow fidgeted with her robe and dislodged it slightly. "Thank you," She said," But listen and listen extremely well - when I told you to stay away from this case, I meant it. You take a step out of Cornwall without my permission again then I'll have you fitted with a tracking rune."

Fleur barely heard the threat as she stared mutely at Carrow's collarbone.

There was a brand there - in the shape of the letter B.

_Lestrange's MO._

_Bind them._

**_Brand them._ **

_Cut them._

_Kill them._

* * *

_You sit in your room and sigh._

_You've been thinking for a while, staring at the ceiling in silence._

_Your mother is out._

_You're not entirely sure where she is but you don't really care._

_She has never been a permanent fixture in your life._

_When you were younger, you didn't care._

_You still don't._

_You still don't care._

_That's what you tell yourself._

_No matter what you think, you have to remind yourself that you don't care._

_You don't care what she thinks._

_You don't care at all._

_That's not why you're doing this._

_That's **not** why you're doing this._

_It's not..._


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amelia gets angry  
> Professor Snape is found

Amelia handed Carrow a file the moment that they all returned home. "Visitor logs," She said," Lestrange wasn't even supposed to have visitors."

Carrow's eyes ran down the list of names. "Conjugal visits?"

Amelia shivered in disgust. "Several."

"You think that our UNSUB is on this list?" 

"It would make sense," She replied," But that would make our lives easy. So, no Ali, I don't think they're on the list. We're not that lucky."

"This is stupid," Hermione said from her spot next to Fleur," Lestrange talked but we have no idea how much is the truth - we should have taken Ginny as well."

"Don't go there Mia," Carrow said, obviously seeing something in the girl's expression. Hermione stilled at the nickname but didn't argue. "Lestrange is good at getting in your head - don't let her." Carrow turned to Amelia. "Did Lestrange say anything about Snape being involved with Alicia Spinnet?"

"Care to share you source on that one?" Amelia asked, her body going rigid.

"Why don't you ask Fleur?" Carrow suggested," Apparently she's been doing some extracurricular digging."

"Excuse me?" Amelia spat out. She whipped her head towards where Fleur was sheepishly looking around the room.

Hermione ran her fingers over her girlfriend's hand. "The party?"

"You know?" Fleur asked.

Hermione's lips quirked upwards slightly as she rested her hand on the Veela's cheek. "I'm not an idiot," She said with a shrug. Her voice was low enough so only Fleur could hear her. " ...And Harry totally spilled when he came home."

"That gives us a motive." Carrow continued," The professor could have killed her to stop her from telling anyone."

Amelia ignored her, staring at Fleur instead. The Auror may have been willing to take calculated risks but she was only okay with those risks if the calculations were done by her. "Am I to understand that you left this house, went out on some outing and interfered with an ongoing investigation?" Amelia never raised her voice but the amount of force in it meant that she might as well have been yelling.

"Oui?"

"Who went with you?"

Fleur, just like with Carrow, didn't respond.

"Leave her alone," Hermione said, eyes blazing as she squeezed Fleur's hand tightly," She was just trying to help."

"Fleur," Amelia said with gritted teeth," I need to talk to you - outside, now."

Fleur followed after pressing a lingering kiss on Hermione's hand.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Amelia hissed out," You need to stop giving Ali ammunition against this program! For once, behave like a responsible teenager who can follow the rules!"

"I was just trying to 'elp!" Fleur said back," I just want to 'elp!"

Amelia sighed but Fleur could see the rage still lingering in her eyes. "I know you do, Fleur, I know. But for you to help with this case, I _need_ you to stay away from it. Support Hermione, help her in any way that you want but stop going out of your way to get involved - okay? Do you understand me?!"

Fleur nodded.

"I need to know the name of your source."

"Cormac McLaggen, he knew Alicia Spinnet along with Marcus Belby and some girl called Katie Bell," Fleur said with a small huff in her voice.

Amelia was fuming and Fleur couldn't bring herself to look at the Auror.

"Get back inside," Amelia ordered," And find the others. I want you all in the living room in five minutes or this house goes into lockdown again."

Fleur hurried along, gathering everybody quickly. She found Ginny and Theo in the library together and Luna was in the basement. Harry was in his room.

"You're not happy," He said as they walked.

"Non," Fleur replied," I am not."

"What's going on?" Harry whispered.

"Somezing bad."

* * *

They were last to arrive.

Fleur returned to her seat next to Hermione while Harry stood at Ginny's side. Ginny was lying across the armchair, twirling a piece of her hair while Luna and Theo leaned up against one of the walls.

Carrow was stood by the door and Amelia was pacing in front of them all.

"Tell me something: in the history of this program, have any of you ever been authorised to approach a witness?" Amelia's tone had lost its hard edge from earlier but, strangely, Fleur found that to be more unnerving.

Ginny processed the question quickly and turned to glare at Fleur. "Seriously, Phlegm, are you the single least stealthy person on the face on the planet or do you just habitually want to get caught?"

"Ginny!" Amelia snapped," Answer the question."

"Fine," Ginny said. Her voice was deceptively silky and a stark contrast to the angry look on her face. "No, we've never been authorised to approach a witness. We've never been authorised to do anything of interest. We stay locked in the metaphorical tower while you run out and catch the bad guys. Satisfied?"

"Do I look satisfied to you?" A vein in Amelia's head throbbed. "Hermione went to see Bellatrix Lestrange today."

Nothing Amelia could have said would have made a bigger impact. Ginny's eyes flickered over to Hermione - who just gave her a small nod.

"Hermione's first ever meeting with her aunt was in a professional setting where she was goaded into giving up information about herself so we could get information for this investigation," Amelia continued mercilessly," Because it was crucial for this case. I want this solved as badly as you do but unlike you lot, I'm not playing games here."

"We were not-" Fleur started.

Amelia cut her off. "Every second I have to spend policing you, making sure that you’re not taking matters into your own hands and compromising this entire investigation, is a second that I could be spending catching this killer. Right now, I should be following up a lead on the professor’s writing cabin, but instead I’m here, because you seem to need a reminder about what this program is and what it isn’t.”

Ginny tore her gaze away from Hermione. She turned to Amelia and stood up, walked towards the Auror with clenched fists. "You're reading us the riot act for trying to put our abilities to use but you'll happily let that deranged bitch play with Hermione's head in exchange for whatever scraps of information that she'll give you, that's okay?"

"Enough," Hermione said. Ginny looked at her. They held each other's gazes for five or six seconds.

"No, Hermione, it's not enough." Ginny's voice was soft until she turned back to Amelia. "You need to let me watch the tape of your interview with Lestrange. Don't even try to tell me that you didn't tape it - you tape every conversation you have with her. The question isn't if she's lying, it's what she's lying about and we both know that I'm your best chance at answering that question."

"You're not helping."

Ginny didn't seem to care as she levelled a sneer at the Auror. 

Amelia's phone rang. She strode out the room to answer it and Carrow stepped forward.

"I'll stay out of it," Hermione cut her off before she could say anything. Her tone was hollow but there was something bitter in her eyes. "That's what I excel at, isn't it? Staying out of it until it's too late."

* * *

Ginny convened with Hermione and Fleur on the roof of the house two hours after Carrow and Amelia left to follow up their lead on the professor's writing cabin.

Harry joined them ten minutes later with three tubs of ice cream.

Fleur and Hermione shared while Harry and Ginny had their own.

"I'm not going to yell at you," Hermione said after a while," About the party. I am going to say though, that it was incredibly stupid of you and you could have died."

Ginny rolled her eyes and glanced at Fleur. "At least I didn't go off with a creepy teaching assistant with scars all over his hands."

Hermione glanced at her girlfriend. "You did what?!"

Fleur rubbed the back of her neck. "Ginny went off wiz two boys zat were friends wiz ze victim."

Hermione sighed deeply and she turned to Harry. "Anybody you want to throw under the bus?" She asked.

Harry chuckled. "Nah," He said," But I'll let you know if anything comes up."

Ginny let out a gasp of faux offence as she swatted him with her cold spoon. She glanced over at Hermione and, for once, Fleur saw the nervousness in her eyes. "How did...How did it go, with Lestrange?"

Hermione shrugged. "She's batshit," She said," Completely out of her mind but, from an objective standpoint, probably the most brilliant person I've ever met - if that makes sense?" She sighed and shook her head to clear her thoughts. " She said that if we were looking for a copycat then we were wasting our time with the professor - she said that the only truly remarkable letters that she'd received had come from a student in that class."

"For Merlin's sake," Ginny muttered," I'm telling you - kids these days are getting way too interested in death for my liking."

Fleur scoffed. "You mean like us?"

Hermione laughed as she rested her head on Fleur's shoulder and moved her spoon up to feed it to the girl.

"You guys are disgustingly cute," Ginny said with a wrinkled nose," I think that I might throw up."

Fleur stuck her tongue out before turning to press kisses to Hermione's face. Hermione laughed softly - seeming more upbeat then when they had first come home - and grabbed Fleur's face and pulled her into a passionate kiss. Fleur pulled back, slightly dazed with a grin on her face. She pulled Hermione back towards her, shoving the tub of ice cream into Harry's hands. It was an awkward position because they were on the roof but, somehow, Hermione had managed to sit herself in Fleur's lap.

They both pointedly ignored the way that Ginny was pretending to gag loudly. Harry glanced away from them - more than happy to give them a few moments of privacy.

The crack of apparition had them all glancing down at the pathway up to the house. Fleur and Hermione pulled away from each other - both of their lips were kiss-swollen - and they peered down at the ground.

Carrow was stalking towards the house.

"She's not happy," Harry commented," Brisk pace, no bounce to her step and hands glued to her sides. I'm guessing the exploration of the professor's writing cabin did not go particularly well."

Fleur's stomach dropped and she could suddenly hear the sound of her own heart beating in her chest. She glanced at Hermione.

She had been so focussed on checking over Hermione that she hadn't spent much time thinking about her aunt. She hadn't let herself dissect the things that Lestrange had said. But now, all she could think about, was that Lestrange had finally given the Aurors about where the professor might be hiding.

_As an organised killer, Bellatrix Lestrange was a woman who thrived on mind games._

_On misdirection._

_On power._

_If Lestrange had thought, even for a moment, that the professor was the killer then she wouldn't have told Amelia where to find him._

_The only way that Lestrange would have told Amelia where to find the professor, was if Lestrange suspected - based on the letters that she'd received - that the professor would remind Amelia, Carrow and everyone else at the DMLE that they weren't nearly as smart as they thought they were._

_'The only truly remarkable letters were from students.'_

Ginny's lips curled up into a taunting smile. She whistled loudly and gained the Auror's attention - whose disapproving eyes flicked over all four of them. Ginny yelled down to her. "Professor's cabin a bust?!"

Carrow didn't answer her. She went straight into the house and slammed the door shut behind her. That action told Fleur all that she needed to know.

"It was not, as you say, 'a bust'," Fleur said to Ginny," I zink zat zey found ze professor." She swallowed thickly. "We should 'ave seen zis coming."

“Seen what coming?” Harry asked.

"I think they found the professor," Hermione said. She and Fleur exchanged a look - having already come to the same conclusion. "But I think that our UNSUB found him first."

* * *

_The professor was a problem._

_You’re a problem solver._

_It was quick and clean—a single bullet to the back of his skull._

_You had never used a Muggle weapon before._

_You'll never use one again._

_There was no artistry to it, no method._

_But, at least, you were showing initiative._

_At least you were ready, willing, and able to do what needed to be done._

_It's not the right way but it still makes you wonder, just for an instant, if this isn’t the better way._

_Guns and neat little bullet holes and the glory of being the one to pull the trigger._

_You could knock the next girl out, tie her up, take her to the middle of nowhere._

_You could let her loose deep in the forest._

_You could track her, catch her in your sights._

_You could pull the trigger._

_Just thinking about it sets your heart to pounding._

_Take them._

_Free them._

_Track them._

_Kill them._

_No._

_You force yourself to stop thinking about it, to stop imagining the sound of bare feet running through the brush - running away from you._

_There is a plan._

_An order._

_A bigger picture._

_You will abide by it._

_For now._


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Theo walks in when he shouldn't.  
> Director Carrow arrives.  
> The Naturals get to be actual teenagers...kind of.

Carrow didn't say anything about the professor in the week after she returned to Shell Cottage. She was barely seen in the house apart from at dinner. She gave Fleur and Hermione work to do, she gave them cases to look over and then she was gone.

The group hadn't seen Amelia during that week either.

It was Sunday when Director Carrow turned up.

Theo had come running into Hermione's room before quickly backtracking - his face a sickly shade of green. Hermione was perched on her desk with Fleur sitting in the chair. They were kissing so enthusiastically that they barely even realised that he was in the room until he backed into one of Hermione's bookshelves and caused all of the books to fall onto the floor.

The couple pulled away quickly - equally red faced - before Hermione hopped down from her desk. She wrung her hands behind her back and cleared her throat. "Did you need something, Theo?" She asked, trying to ignore the burn in her face.

"Er, well, erm," Theo stuttered as he looked anywhere but the pair of them," I...The Director is here with Carrow and Amelia - they're in Amelia's study."

The last time the DMLE Director had made an appearance at Shell Cottage was when Astoria Greengrass had been kidnapped.

It certainly did not bode well that he had returned.

When Fleur, Hermione and Theo made their way over to Amelia's study, none of them were surprised to find Ginny, Luna and Harry already pressing their ears up to the door. Fleur couldn't make out much of what was being said but, occasionally, raised voices could be heard through the privacy charms.

First Amelia.

Then the Director.

Then Carrow.

Then, there was silence.

Hermione grabbed Fleur by the arm and Ginny by the collar of her shirt, pulling them both away from the door. Luna had backed away - as had Harry after piecing together what was about to happen. They all fell in rank with Theo.

The door to the study opened and none of the Aurors seemed to be surprised to see them all outside.

Fleur looked over her supervisors.

The past week hadn't been kind to either of them.

Amelia looked like that she'd slept in her robes. Her hair was unbrushed and there were bags under her eyes. Beside her, Carrow's jaw was clenched. Her shirt was buttoned all the way up and so were her outer robes. She was the kind of person who used clothes as armour and the subtle changes told Fleur that Carrow had gotten dressed that way because she was expecting a fight.

"Three hundred and seven," The Director said grimly. He looked at each of them in turn. "That's how many students are enrolled in Snape's serial killer class. One hundred and twenty-seven are female and one hundred and eighty are males." Director Carrow paused. The first time that Fleur had met him, she'd been reminded of a grandfather. Today though, there was nothing grandfatherly about him. "That's a lot of suspects and I'm a man who believes in utilising all of his resources."

Director Carrow was whatever kind of man he had to be to stay on top. When confronted with a problem, he analysed all possible solutions - costs versus benefits, risks balanced out against rewards. In this case, the risks and likelihood of compromising the investigation and exposing the Naturals program compared to the potential benefits of utilizing all of his 'resources' to catch this killer.

Fleur thought of Moody and his talk of the DMLE crossing lines.

"We were told to stay away from this case on pain of death." Ginny's smile was predatory and her eyes were alight with something that Fleur couldn't quite place. Ginny hadn't liked that they had gotten caught and she hadn't liked that she had been told to back off. "Am I to take it that certain parties have been overruled?"

Her eyes were on Amelia when she said 'certain parties' but Fleur's eyes were on Carrow.

_There was a reason she had dressed for battle that morning._

_Whatever the Director was about to ask them to do, his daughter had argued against it._

“The risks are minimal to non-existent," The Director said firmly," And given recent events, it’s my understanding that giving you something useful to do might actually keep you out of trouble.”

Fleur took that to mean that the Director knew about their little trip to Glaeferry.

“The six of you won’t be interviewing witnesses.” Amelia stood with her hands loose by her sides as she eyed each of them. “You will not be going to crime scenes. You will not be running any simulations. You will not be sketching anything.” Her gaze flicked over to Ginny. “You won’t be analysing any of our interviews with Bellatrix Lestrange.”

Fleur wasn't sure what else was left.

“Your involvement on this case begins and ends with social media.” Amelia turned to Carrow and waited. For a moment, Fleur thought that the other Auror would turn on her heels and march out the door.

She didn't.

“Our preliminary profile says the UNSUB is male.” Carrow’s voice was perfectly even and perfectly calm in a way that told Fleur that she was on the verge of snapping. The closer she was to losing it, the more viciously she reeled it in. “Lestrange suggested we might be dealing with a university student. I have put the UNSUB’s age between nineteen and twenty-three. Above-average intelligence, but not necessarily educated. But what do I know?” An edge had crept into her voice and something told Fleur that Carrow's daddy issues were breaking through.

“Thank you, Auror Carrow," The Director cut in. He turned back to the group of teenagers. “With the university’s cooperation, we’ve obtained copies of the class schedules and transcripts for every student in that class. What that doesn’t tell us is who they are or what they’re capable of. That’s where you come in.”

“Social media," Luna interjected, picking up on what Amelia had said earlier. “Upwards of three hundred million photos are uploaded to leading social media sites every day. Among smartphone owners in our UNSUB’s demographic, somewhere between sixty and eighty percent of time spent using that device will be spent on social networks, rather than direct communication and that's only in the wizarding populace. Many witches and wizards have started to adopt Muggle methods into their every day lives. This trend was popularised by Hogwarts Muggleborn students.”

“Exactly," Director Carrow said to her," We don’t have the manpower to search through every post, and even if we did, your eyes might catch something that Amelia’s team wouldn’t. We’re not asking you to do anything that adolescents all over the country don’t do every day.” Director Carrow wasn’t looking at them when he said those words - he was looking at his daughter. “You’re teenagers. This internet stuff is practically your native language.”

“And you’re okay with this?” Harry asked Carrow. To Fleur, there was no noticeable change in her expression but Harry must have seen something. “Not okay with it,” He interpreted,“ But also not as convinced that it’s a bad idea as you’d like to be.” He gave her a small smile. “We’re growing on you.”

“Enough, Harry.” Amelia turned the focus away from Carrow and back to the case. “If the UNSUB is enrolled in Snape’s class, the profile predicts that he would be an older student. He probably comes from a working-class family and may live at home and commute to campus.”

Carrow threaded her fingers together in front of her. Her profile had put the younger end of the age range at twenty-three. Amelia had just expanded that upwards by at least a year or two.

“Alecto?” The Director prompted.

“We’re looking for someone who gets pleasure out of dominating others, but who may not be fully confident in his ability to do so,” Carrow said after a few beats of silence. “His father was present, but volatile, and likely left the family around the time our UNSUB entered puberty. His mother may have dated a string of men, but she did not remarry until the UNSUB was at least eighteen. This UNSUB is slightly uncomfortable with firearms but has no problem with using them. He will not have a girlfriend or spouse. It’s likely that he drives a dark-colored truck or SUV, and if he has a dog, expect it to be a larger breed, such as a German shepherd.”

At the mention of firearms, both Fleur and Hermione tensed - instinctively reaching for each other.

Fleur was used to making profiles. Doing the reverse, trying to figure out the specific pieces of evidence that had led Carrow to those conclusions, was a lot harder. A dark-colored SUV and a large-breed dog suggested a need for power and domination. She wasn’t sure where firearms came in—unless the professor had been shot?—but there must have been something about Alicia’s murder that suggested both a need for control and a lack of confidence on the killer’s part. The presentation of the body and the methodical way Alicia had been killed were both characteristic of an organized killer but she wasn't sure where Carrow had gotten lack of confidence from.

_The fact that he’s copying another killer’s MO?_

_Victim selection?_

_Did the UNSUB’s initial attack come from behind?_

_Did he drug her?_

Fleur tried to figure out how Carrow had arrived at her conclusions, but found that operating with a tiny subset of the relevant case details was like trying to swim with a cinder block tied to each knee.

She had seen Alicia's body on the news but that wasn’t enough.

“Hermione, if you’d rather sit this one out, that would be fine.” The Director straightened the front of his suit as he gave Hermione a tight, close-lipped smile that didn't meet his eyes.

"You mean that you would rather I sat this one out," Hermione said. She squeezed Fleur's hand. "Because 'I'm too close to it' but really, it's because you don't trust me." She paused and the Director didn't contradict her. "Not on this case," She continued," Not with my aunt - and not with your daughter."

* * *

Snapshots uploaded by other people gave Fleur a good look at a person without ever meeting them. She could see how self-conscious they were - if they were at the centre of group pictures or the edge. She could analyse how controlled they were - if their expression was the same for every photo. Bit by bit, Fleur could build a model of someone's life from the ground up - which would have been more useful if she (or Hermione) had been the one to profile the UNSUB rather than just being given a list of boxes to check off.

Fleur sighed as she blinked a few times - her eyes having gone blurry from scrolling through too many profiles, very few of which actually looked interesting.

Carrow thought the UNSUB was young but not adolescent.

_Why?_

He had chosen a first year university student as his first victim. Someone who desperately longed to dominate other people would start with easy prey—a laughing, smiling young girl who wasn’t physically imposing in the least. He was probably at least a couple of years older than she was, and since a quick glance at Alicia’s profile told Fleur that the girl had just turned nineteen, that explained the lower end of Carrow’s estimated age range.

How had she determined that the UNSUB wasn’t the same age as the professor?

_You imitate somebody else's kills._

_You admire her._

_You want to be like her._

Fleur let that thought sit for a moment.

_But you also risked getting caught to display your kill in a very public location—something Bellatrix Lestrange wouldn’t have done._

_You brought black rope with you to hang her._

To put it in terms of the textbook she and Hermione had read, this was an organised kill but there was something disorganised about it as well. The attack had obviously been planned but there was also something impulsive about it.

_Did you plan to leave her tied to the tree?_

_Or was that something you thought of once your adrenaline started pumping?_

Displaying the victim in public suggested a need for recognition.

 _Recognition_ _for who?_

_The public?_

_The press?_

_Bellatrix Lestrange?_

That was a possibility that Fleur couldn't shake and somehow, other pieces of Carrow's profile began to make sense. An imulsive copycat who idolised Lestrange would probably be young than the woman was, probably by a decade or more.

_You’ve felt powerless and you admire her power._

_You’ve felt invisible and you want to be seen._

SUVs and trucks were large and sat up higher on the road. German shepherds were also large. They were intelligent, strong—and often police dogs in the Muggle world.

_You don’t just want power._

_You want authority._

_You want it because you’ve never had it._

_Because the people in your life who do have it make you feel weak._

_You didn’t feel weak when you killed Alicia._

Fleur thought about the Professor and wished that she knew how he had died.

_If you were in Snape’s class, you admired the professor—at first._

_Later you resented him for being all talk and no show._

_For not paying enough attention to you._

_For paying too much to Alicia._

_Organised killers frequently chose victims they did not know to reduce the chances that the crime could be traced back to them._

Fleur's gut was telling her that it wasn’t a coincidence that Alicia had been in a relationship with Snape and now they were both dead.

_The victims weren’t chosen randomly._

_They weren’t chosen by a stranger._

"Luna?" Fleur asked.

Luna didn't look up from her laptop. She continued to type rapidly before glancing over at Fleur with a curious look on her face.

"Can you compare ze ozzer students' schedules to Alicia's and see 'ow much overlap zere is?" Fleur asked," I am zinking zat if our UNSUB was fixated on Alicia zen zis might not be ze only class zat zey shared."

“Sure.” Luna didn’t move to reach for any of the files. She just sat on the floor with her hands folded onto her lap and a bright smile on her face.

“Could you do it now?”

"I am doing it now."

Luna had an incredible memory and it was that same skill set that allowed her to rebuild the crime scene from memory. It seemed that it also meant that she didn't need to go back over the data to analyse it.

"Alicia was also doing a dual Potions Mastery," She rattled off," Most of the other students in Snape's class were taking two courses - one Muggle based and one magical based. Because of all of the options and conflicting timetables, only two students shared classes with her."

"Who are they?" Hermione asked from her spot on the floor in-between Fleur's legs.

Luna thumbed through a stack of files and pulled out two of them. "Katie Bell and Marcus Belby," She said.

Theo looked up from whatever he was doing at the sound of Katie's name. "Katie didn't mention that she and Alicia had any other classes together."

Hermione hummed slightly before tapping Fleur's thigh once - gaining her girlfriend's attention. "I'll take Katie Bell and you do Belby?"

Fleur nodded and reached for her phone. She searched up Marcus Belby's profile. Unlike most of his peers, the profile had been set to private so all she could see was the profile picture. She frowned and turned her phone around so everybody could see.

Marcus had known Alicia. He knew that she was sleeping with the professor. He was angry.

His profile picture was a picture of him wearing an orange hunting vest, holding a gun.

_You were in most of Alicia's classes._

Fleur slipped into Marcus' mind without even thinking about it and, a quick glance at her girlfriend, told her that Hermione was doing the same. It brought a small smile to her face - knowing that they were working just like usual, in perfect sync with each other.

_You liked watching her._

_She was nice to you._

_You thought she was perfect._

_Then you found out she wasn’t..._

"You got something?" Harry asked from his spot across the room. There must have been something in Fleur's face that gave it away.

She bit into the inside of her cheek. "Maybe."

Fleur could see Marcus targeting Alicia but, if he had been the one to attack her, then Fleur would have expected it to be messier. Fleur had tagged Marcus as a disorganised killer. Alicia wasn't murdered on an impulse. But, this UNSUB never lost emotional control.

Yet...

A phone rang suddenly and Fleur was pulled out of her thoughts. It took her a moment to realise that it was her phone that was ringing. Ginny moved across the room quickly and snatched it from Fleur's grasp with a cocky grin.

"Give it 'ere, Ginny."

Ginny turned the phone around so they could all see the caller's name. TERRY BOOT flashed across the screen.

"The two of you have been texting," She said," You've really grown quite close." She turned to Hermione. "Jealous?"

"I trust Fleur," Hermione replied as she tilted her head back to stare up at her girlfriend with an adoring smile on her face," Besides, the idea of men physically repulses her - I have nothing to be jealous about." She sent a look to Ginny. "The question is how _you_ know that they've been texting?"

Ginny smirked.

Fleur reminded herself to change her phone password.

"Shall we see what he has to say?" Ginny didn't wait for a response before she answered the call.

* * *

_It's getting worse._

_The need._

_The urge._

_The desire to kill someone with little more than a whispered spell and a spark of light from the tip of your wand._

_You don't like waiting._

_You never had._

_Sometimes, it was better not to wait._

_Sometimes, it was better to just jump in._

_This is not one of those things._

_But you wish it was._

_You hate waiting._

_You hate knowing - knowing that dirty little secret that only a few other people know._

_You hate not being the best - not the only one good at what you're good at._

_By Merlin, you hate it._

_You'll prove that you're the best..._

_Even if it kills you._


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Naturals talk to Terry Boot  
> Luna watches a video  
> Fleur and Ginny eavesdrop on the roof

"Terry, I was just talking about you." Ginny smiled at whatever he said in response before putting the phone on speaker.

"Did you hear about the professor?" Terry replied," It's all over the news."

"This must be so hard for you," Ginny said. She leaned back into Harry. Her tone was thick with sympathy but she gave an exaggerated roll of her eyes.

"You have no idea," Terry said in response," The professor didn't deserve this."

Fleur and Hermione exchanged a look - a question sparking between them.

_And Alicia did?_

"First that girl and now the professor," Ginny replied. She sounded every inch the tragedy groupie, ready to hang on Terry's every word. "Who do you think it is?"

"We're dealing with what I like to call an organised killer," Terry intoned," Highly intelligent and hard to catch."

That sick feeling was back in Fleur's stomach. She didn't know what had caused it - the way that Terry was acting like he had invented the phrase 'organised killer' or the fact that 'highly intelligent' was probably a descriptor that he would use to describe himself.

"He's an idiot," Hermione muttered. 

Fleur couldn't help but agree as she slipped off of her bed to sit on the floor with her girlfriend, lacing one of their hands together. She passed Hermione the glass of water from her bedside table.

"I'll probably have to take over the class now that Snape is gone," Terry added.

"Do you think it could be someone in the class?" Ginny asked," Your class?"

She was so good at changing the direction of the conversation that Terry didn't even realise that she had done it.

"If there were a student in this class with the potential for that kind of thing," Terry said," Then I think that I would know it." His tone was saturated with smugness.

“What about the kid who’s setting the curve in the class?” Ginny gave him another verbal nudge.

"No way," Terry scoffed," Marcus something - he wouldn't hurt a fly."

A shiver went down Fleur's back. She hadn't pegged Marcus as the curve-setting type and that disturbed her. Maybe he was more of a planner, more organised than Fleur had realised.

Ginny hung up with a grin as Fleur snatched her phone back.

It rang again and Fleur was surprised when it wasn't Terry calling her back.

"There's someone I need you to look up," Amelia said. Her voice was tense and held a dangerous edge.

"Same to you," Hermione said before anybody could reply. Her eyes flicked to the still open profile of Marcus. "Marcus Belby," She said," He's comfortable with guns, shared more than one class with Alicia and was setting the curve in Snape's class." She glanced at Fleur. "You should also check out Snape's teaching assistant."

"I'll look into it," Amelia promised," But right now, I need one of you to look up an Adrian Pucey - he took Snape's class a few years ago."

"Why are we looking 'im up?" Fleur asked.

There was silence for a moment and Fleur could almost imagine the look of contemplation on Amelia's face. "He's the one who posted the video of the crime scene." Her tone had an odd way of punctuating the end of sentences that made it apparent that she wouldn't be answering anymore questions.

"Right," Fleur said," Adrian Pucey - we will look 'im up."

Twenty minutes later, Fleur knew everything she could about Adrian Pucey. He was a pureblood of slightly lower calibre to Theo - who confessed that he once saw the boy take a swan dive off of a balcony during a party. He had an estranged relationship with his parents - but not so estranged that he didn't have access to the family vaults. He was, however, distant enough that he didn't talk to them save for the few times that they attended high society parties together. He was in an on-and-off relationship with somebody. The girl implicated in the relationship was Katie Bell.

_Your name just keeps coming up._

Fleur pictured the girl in her mind. She had made the error once before of assuming an UNSUB was male. No matter what her gut was telling her this time, she couldn’t risk making the same mistake twice.

Fleur jolted slightly as the profile refreshed itself and a new video appeared. She quirked an eyebrow and exchanged a look with Hermione - who had noticed her going still. Fleur clicked on it and, instead of a corpse this time, the video was of an exam hall filled with students.

“Professor Severus Snape once said that he scheduled his class for seven thirty in the morning as a way of separating the students who were taking his class as an easy degree from those who were serious about the study of criminology.”

The camera panned the room to show more students writing essays.

“A few weeks ago, three hundred and seven serious students took the first of three Monsters or Men exams. The three hundred and eighth student, Alicia Spinnet, was found dead that morning.”

“There’s no white noise,” Luna commented as she looked at the video with a critical eye," Whoever did the narration has decent equipment. The video, on the other hand, was taken by some kind of smartphone. At least 1080p resolution, maybe higher.”

The video cut from the exam to familiar footage—the clip of Alicia’s body. The narration continued but Fleur tuned it out.

“I’d ask if this kid was serious,” Theo said as he moved closer to watch," But I can tell that he is. He thinks this is cutting-edge journalism.”

"He didn't kill Alicia," Hermione replied with a tired sigh. 

Fleur was inclined to agree. 

Adrian Pucey didn't fit the profile. The UNSUB didn't have a snarky blog. He didn't have a girlfriend like Katie Bell - even if it was complicated. The person who killed Alicia - who had displayed her like a dog dropping a dead bird at the feet of his master - would never have started his 'news report' of the event with footage of the class. For the UNSUB, the rest of the class would have been besides the point.

“Give me the link,” Luna ordered," Watching it from a phone isn't the best.”

Fleur did and Luna had the video up on her laptop in seconds. She started it from the beginning and used keyboard shortcuts to pause it then play it and then pause it again. Her eyes flicked around the screen. "The voice-over is right," She announced to the room," There are three hundred and seven students in that room. Including your suspect." Luna pointed to one of the rows at the back.

Marcus Belby was sat four rows from the back. Katie Bell was sitting two seats and one row behind him. Cormac McLaggen was three rows in front of Marcus.

"Who's filming the test?" Theo asked from his spot near the door," And why?"

"I don't know," Luna replied," The news report said that Alicia's body was discovered early that morning. How early is considered early?"

Fleur thought about the question and checked the time stamp of the video - 7:34 A.M.

“Time of death," Hermione said out loud after taking a sip of water," We need a time of death."

Luna grabbed Fleur's phone and redialled the number. When nobody answered, she called again...and again...and again.

"What?!" Amelia snapped on the other side of the phone.

“It’s considered impolite to talk above seventy-five decibels," Luna replied," I believe it’s called shouting.”

Fleur couldn't hear Amelia's response

“Is the autopsy in on Alicia Spinnet?” Luna held the phone to her ear with her shoulder and used her free hands to pull her hair into a ponytail. “We need time of death. Cause of death would also be helpful.”

Fleur was fairly certain that Amelia wouldn't want to part with that information. There was quite a lot of distance between profiling university students on social media and reading a classified autopsy.

“You’re at seventy-eight decibels,” Luna said. She was completely unfazed by Amelia’s objections. “And we still need time of death.” She paused again. “Because,” She said, drawing out the word as if she were talking to a very small, very slow child," We’re sitting here looking at a video that was taken at 7:34 that morning. If I’m remembering the campus maps correctly—and you know I am—Hippogriff Auditorium is a twenty-five-minute walk and a ten-minute drive from the tree where the body is. Which means that if the death of Alicia Spinnet required the UNSUB’s presence and took place after 7:25 A.M and before the end of that test, then every single student in that class has an alibi.”

Luna was quiet for longer this time before she hung up the phone.

“What did she say?” Harry asking from across the room.

Luna closed her laptop and pushed it away. “She said that the body was found at 8:15 that morning. Time of death was estimated at 7:55.”

The time stamp on the video was verified.

It was official.

Alicia Spinnet had been killed while the students in Professor Snape’s class were taking their exam.

The DMLE tracked the video back to Terry Boot, who explained that it was Snape's polity to have a video record of tests to discourage other people taking it on another student's behalf. The full-length video also included close-ups of each student as they turned in their tests. Each and every one of the three hundred and seven potential subjects - three hundred and eight if they counted Terry - were present and accounted for.

As far as alibis went, this one was ironclad.

Next to her, Fleur watched as the glass in Hermione's hand shattered.

* * *

"I told Amelia that she should have let me watch the interview with Lestrange," Ginny said as she slammed the door to the freezer shut and took her frustration out on the cutlery drawer. She banged it open and sent the contents rattling. "We've been chasing a non-existent lead because nobody will me tell them what a soulless, Machiavellian piece of shit Lestrange really is!"

Fleur sighed from where she sat on the kitchen counter. They were the only ones there. Hermione had disappeared after dinner with Moody - who had told her that she could take out her frustrations on a punching bag. Harry was probably in his room, going over more profiles in case he missed something. Luna was likely in the basement and Theo was probably in one of the studies.

Ginny used several colourful words to describe Lestrange and Fleur didn't disagree with any of them. She reached across the younger girl and pulled out two spoons. She held one out for Ginny, who took it after several seconds of contemplation before eyeing the other spoon suspiciously.

"You are sharing ze ice cream," Fleur said.

Ginny twirled the spoon back and forth in her fingers. Her face gave away nothing and she could have easily been planning Fleur's demise.

" 'Ermione is not telling me everyzing eizzer," Fleur said," Zis case is getting to 'er and unless she tells us what she is going zrough zen I cannot 'elp 'er well. I am just as frustrated as you. Ze UNSUB is not in zat class. It does not matter zat Terry 'as minimal empathy or zat Marcus 'ad a zing for Alicia. None of it matters because neizzer of zem killed 'er."

"All right," Ginny snapped," Enough with the bonding, Phlegm. I'll share the ice cream but we're eating it somewhere else. I'm not in the mood to play nice with others and the next person who asks me to share something dies a slow, painful death."

"You 'ave a place in mind?"

Fleur wasn't surprised when Ginny led her to the roof. Wordlessly, Ginny tilted the carton of ice cream towards her.

"Someone's courting an ice cream headache," Ginny commented when she watched Fleur gouge out a large spoonful.

Fleur made a face. "We should 'ave brought bowls."

Ginny scoffed. "There's a lot of things that we should have done." She stared out across the horizon. Fleur got the feeling that if she hadn't been there then Ginny would have stayed our there all night - two stories off the ground with her feet dangling over the edge. She was a person who hated being boxed in. She hated being trapped. She always had an exit strategy.

_She just hadn’t needed one in a very long time._

" 'Ermione will get over it," Fleur said instead of the other things that she was thinking - about exit strategies and Ginny's childhood and the way that she had gained her abilities," She cannot keep it all in forever. She knows zat we are 'ere to 'elp 'er."

"Don't you get it?!" Ginny finally turned to look at Fleur. Her eyes were watery with tears that she would never let herself shed. "Hermione does this when the going gets tough. She goes numb, she shuts people out. That's fine - I get it. Of all people, I do." Ginny squeezed her eyes shut and took a few deep breaths. "She shut Theo out - that's why they broke up. She's shut Harry and Luna out before. But...she doesn't shut me out."

She sighed loudly and stabbed her spoon into the tub of ice cream.

"I was ready to hate her," She continued," I'm good at hating people but Hermione never pressed. She never asked me a single question that I didn't want to answer. One night, after I'd been here a couple of months, I went to sneak out - running away is something I'm good at too."

Fleur wasn't sure why Ginny was telling her this but somewhere in her gut, she knew that what she was being told she the truth.

"Hermione caught me. She said that if I was going then she was going too. I called her bluff only, I knew that she wasn't bluffing. I ran away - she followed. We were gone for four days. I'd lived on the streets before but she hadn't. She stayed up during the night so I could sleep. Sometimes, I'd wake up and see her keeping watch. She never asked for a thing in return."

Fleur smiled softly. "She would never ask for somezing like zat."

"No," Ginny agreed," She wouldn't. The last day before we came back, she told me about her mum, about how she'd come to be here, about Amelia. Hermione is the only person I've ever known who's never lied to me."

"Carrow was one of 'er Aunt's victims," Fleur confessed softly - unsure as to why she was telling her," Carrow 'as a brand on 'er collarbone. I zink zat 'Ermione knows."

Ginny thought over the information with an unreadable face. "And now she's back," She said finally. She stared out towards the horizon. "And all Hermione can think about is being compared to either of her Aunts."

"Zen Alicia Spinnet turns up dead and 'Ermione ends up in an interrogation room wiz Lestrange." Fleur dug her spoon into the ice cream. "Going into zat room, listening to what Lestrange 'ad to say - zat is what caused 'Ermione start to spiral. Zen Carrow starts questioning me about our trip-"

"Which you let slip," Ginny interjected with an eye roll.

"Carrow already knew zat I 'ad snuck out," Fleur continued," I just told 'er what we learned."

"None of which even matters," Ginny cut in with a huff," Because every student in that class - not to mention the assistant - has an ironclad alibi. And, instead of using us, the way they should, they leave us locked up here." Ginny glanced down at the path towards the house with a scowl as the sound of apparition filled the area. "Here's our favourite person now."

Director Carrow apparated to the beginning of the pathway.

"Do you zink zat 'e is back to see us?" Fleur asked before Ginny pulled her back until they were mostly obscured from view. Her eyes were narrowed and she tilted her head slightly in an attempt to hear better.

"You don't need to be here," Carrow said without turning around.

"I'd like to talk to the girl."

"You don't need to talk to Hermione." Carrow was using her interrogator voice - firm and even toned.

“You're forgetting which one of us is the Director here, _Auror Carrow._ "

"And I think that you're forgetting that after the Andromeda situation, I wasn't the only one asking questions," She replied," I have contacts in high positions in our Ministry and Ministries across the globe. Gossip spreads fast. What do you think would happen if it got out that the DMLE was consulting with Lestrange's teenage niece on this case?"

“This is the one case for which exposure isn’t a concern.” The Director’s tone never changed. “The DMLE would be talking to the girl on this case whether she was working for us or not. Don't create problems when there aren't any."

“I agreed to come here and evaluate this program because you said that reporting the Naturals program to the upper levels of the Ministry would be a mistake.” A tiny hint of emotion crept into Carrow's voice. “You told me that I needed to see it myself to understand exactly what I would be shutting down.”

“You listened to me then," The Director countered calmly," You could have filed that report, and you didn’t.”

“Like you left me any choice!”

“I did nothing but tell you the truth," The Director looked down at his watch," This program is the only thing keeping that girl from the edge. You think she’d fare better in foster care? What about the Potter boy? Or the Lovegood girl? Maybe you’d like me to send Ginevra Weasley back onto the streets? She’d get caught again eventually, and this time, I guarantee you she’d end up getting tried as an adult.”

Fleur noticed Ginny stiffen next to her.

"You wanted me to come here," Carrow said with gritted teeth," I came here. When I did, you promised that you would listen to my recommendations."

“If you were being reasonable, I would listen. But keeping the girl away from this case isn’t reasonable.” The Director gave her a bored look," You can stand there and tell me how wrong this program is but inside, you want to shut down this killer just as badly as I do. It’s everything you can do not to use the Naturals to do it, and sooner or later, you’ll forget all about your principles. You’ll be the one telling me we need to cross that line.”

“Of course I want to use them!” Carrow snapped. “But this isn’t about me. Or you. Or the department. This is about the six teenagers who live in that house. Six kids whose only protection is rules that you put in place and then break again and again. You’re the one who let them work on the Andromeda case. You’re the one who insisted we bring Hermione to talk to Lestrange. You’re making rules and breaking them, sending mixed messages—”

“That’s not what this is about," The Director broke in. Unlike his daughter’s voice, his remained completely impassive. “You’re not upset about whatever messages you think I’m sending. Years later and you’re still upset that I sided with your wife on this program instead of with you.”

“Ex-wife.”

“You left her and you left your position.”

“Go ahead and say it, Dad. _I left you_.”

“Do you know what kind of position that put me in, Alecto? How am I supposed to command the loyalty of the DMLE when my own daughter kept flitting between department to department? After the incident with the Moody girl on the Nightshade case, morale was low. We needed to present a united front.”

Carrow whipped around and cleared the distance between them in two steps. "Her name was Emmeline and it wasn't an incident. A psychopath snuck into our labs and murdered one of our people. Amelia and I both had something to prove-" She cut herself off and took a deep breath. "I left the homicide department because I didn't belong there."

"But you came back," The Director replied," Not for me - you came back for the girl. What Lestrange did to you, what happened to Emmeline on the Nightshade case - it's all tied up in your mind. You couldn't save Emmeline so you've decided to save the girl."

"Someone has to."

“I am done talking about this with you, Alecto," The Director’s voice had gone quiet - barely loud enough for the sound to carry up to the roof," We need to know if any of Lestrange’s visitors is a likely suspect on this case. Do I need to tell you who some of Glaeferry University’s alumni are? The pressure to put this one to bed is coming from on high, Auror.” His voice softened slightly. “I know you don’t want to see the bodies stacking up.”

“Of course I want to catch this guy before anyone else gets hurt. That’s why I went to see Lestrange myself.”

The Director froze. “I intercepted you before you executed that ill thought out plan.”

Carrow smiled at him, baring her teeth. Fleur recognised the expression easily and vaguely wondered if the Carrow family had any Veela blood in them. The expression was reminiscent of a Veela mother rising up in defence of her child. “Did you?” Her tone was chilling to the bone.

“Alecto-”

“Right now, I think I prefer Auror Carrow. You wanted someone to get underneath Lestrange’s skin. You don’t need Hermione for that - I’m the one who got away, Director. You know what that means to a killer like Lestrange.”

“I know that I don’t want you anywhere near her." Fleur was struck by just how much the Director sounded like a regular father.

“Let me talk to Hermione.” Carrow continued," She's had Narcissa sodding Malfoy breathing down her neck since the start of the summer - telling her everything about Lestrange and Andromeda. Let me be the one who shows Hermione the visitor logs. If she knows anything that might prove relevant then she’ll tell me.”

They stared at each other in silence for a minute or two before the Director nodded stiffly. "Fine," He said," But if you and Amelia can't get me results then I'll bring in someone who can."

The Director apparated on the spot and Carrow stalked up the path towards the house.

"And I thought that my family had issues," Ginny laughed humourlessly.

Fleur wasn't listening as she mulled over the conversation in her head. "Ze Director did not call 'Ermione by name - 'e just said 'ze girl'. 'E does not want to see 'Ermione as a person. Ze girl is a means to an end. Ze girl is an extension of 'er family - of 'er Aunts."

This from the man who referred to his own daughter as Auror Carrow.

_She is the one who followed in your footsteps - choosing the homicide department just like you did._

_Of all of your children, she's the most like you._

_She was your legacy..._

_Then she was gone_

“The Director wants to think that Hermione is like Andromeda and Lestrange," Ginny said," He thinks that she's helping this UNSUB. What exactly he thinks Hermione helped them do is up in the air but for him, Hermione's culpability is fact."

"Was Carrow - our Carrow - being honest when she said zat she would ask 'Ermione about ze visitor logs?" Fleur asked.

“Yeah, she was."

“Maybe she is starting to realize zat she cannot protect 'Ermione from zis,” She said. “All she can do is run interference and make sure zat she is not going zrough it alone.”

"Whatever you say," Ginny said. She started walking around the very edge of the roof.

"You forgot ze ice cream," Fleur said.

Ginny glanced back over her shoulder. "And you forgot the most interesting thing we learned from this little excursion.”

Fleur cocked her head to the side as she thought over the entire conversation. “Ze Nightshade case?”

“The Nightshade case—whatever that is—and the person who paid the price for however that case went down.”

"Emmeline," Fleur said. She thought back to Hermione and Carrow's argument on the first night - about getting somebody killed.

Ginny turned the corner. Fleur couldn't see her anymore but she had no trouble hearing her. "Not just Emmeline," Ginny countered," Emmeline Moody."

* * *

_Your hands are shaking at the note in your hand._

_It's not time yet - not for you._

_You sigh and consider not replying._

_But you know better._

_You know better._

_You pick up your quill and dip it in ink._

_You write out your message and, with a flick of your wand, you send it flying out of the window._

_You sigh again and pick up the gun._

_You fiddle with the trigger._

_You've used it a few more times since the first time._

_It's easier now._

_You find that you quite like it._

_It's terribly Muggle but you don't mind._

_You smile as you aim it at out of your bedroom window._

_You glance outside before ducking._

_Your mother is out there._

_She doesn't know that you have a gun._

_You don't want her to know._

_You hide it under your bed before glancing outside again._

_You sigh._


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fleur invites Hermione to France  
> Hermione and Carrow slowly mend the bridge between them

Fleur was tired when she woke up the next day.

Most of her night had been spent trying to work out just who Emmeline was to Moody. It wasn't possible that she was just a passing relation like a niece or a cousin - Moody didn't have any siblings or aunts and uncles. Emmeline also couldn't have been a granddaughter either - Moody wasn't old enough for that. She was probably around the same age as Carrow was and a little younger than Amelia.

Of course, that only left one way for Emmeline and Moody to be related.

_He had a daughter._

"Stop moving," Hermione grumbled as Fleur shifted onto her side.

Fleur chuckled slightly. She wasn't surprised in the slightest at seeing her girlfriend in her bed. If anything, she would have been more surprised if Hermione hadn't been half asleep in bed with her. She moved her head slightly and glanced over at Luna's side of the room. The girl wasn't there and Fleur rolled her eyes as she put her head back onto her pillow. She smiled slightly and reached out to cup Hermione's face.

"Stop it," Hermione groused with her eyes still shut," I'm tired - you're not helping."

Fleur chuckled slightly and leaned forward to press a soft kiss to her girlfriend's forehead before slipping out of bed.

Hermione grumbled some more but finally opened her eyes. "It's too early."

Fleur grinned at her as she made her way over to her desk. "It is not zat early," She said as she rifled through the letters that were cluttered on her table. 

Her hands danced over the letter at the bottom of the pile and she froze slightly - throwing a glance back at Hermione who was now sitting up in bed and rubbing her eyes. The letter had been delivered at the start of the week and Fleur had had to ask Carrow for permission to go - which, in and of itself, was slightly annoying to do.

"Fleur?" Hermione asked, noticing her girlfriend's sudden stillness," Is everything okay?"

Fleur turned around quickly, nodding as she grasped the letter in her hand. She didn't have time to properly formulate her idea before it all came bursting out. "Would you like to come wiz me?"

Hermione sat up straighter and cocked her head to the side. "Where?"

" 'Ome."

"Home," Hermione repeated," To France?"

Fleur winced slightly - more than a little annoyed at the fact that her words were coming out like a jumbled mess. "Oui."

"Alright," Hermione laughed," I'll bite. Why are we going to France?"

"No reason," Fleur rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet," I got invited and you need a distraction. Do you want to come wiz?"

Hermione grinned as she stood from the bed. She crossed the space between them easily. "Always," She said as she pulled Fleur down for a searing kiss.

"You will 'ave to talk to Carrow zough," Fleur said against her lips.

Hermione made a face as she pulled away. "I will literally pay you to never mention Carrow when we kiss ever again."

* * *

Carrow slumped against the cool marble of the kitchen island - her face pressed into the surface as she yawned.

"Hey."

She bolted upright quickly - spine stiffening as she whirled around.

Hermione was stood behind her - hands hidden in an oversized Quidditch jersey (which undoubtedly belonged to Fleur) with hair that was braided nicely down her back, which was, also, probably done by Fleur as well.

"Mi-Hermione," Carrow said - her previous tiredness forgotten. She glanced around the rest of the room - more than shocked to find that the pair were alone. Even Moody hadn't appeared to supervise them and he was one of the few who knew just how volatile the two witches could be when they argued.

Hermione took a deep breath before sliding into the seat next to her. "You can call me Mia again," She said softly - her breathing carefully controlled," If you want."

"Really?"

She sighed again - long and drawn out and an action that was obviously borrowed from spending too many years in Shell Cottage with Ginny.

"Yeah..." Hermione trailed off. She glanced around the area as her leg bounced nervously. She cleared her throat. "Listen," She said," Fleur invited me to go to France with her for the week."

"I see."

"Can I go?"

Carrow couldn't help the amused smile that appeared on her face. "Do you usually ask Amelia these things?"

Hermione scowled. "No."

"Then why are you asking me?"

"You're not Amelia," Hermione replied after a brief moment of silence," I...I don't know...just, can I go?"

"Go on," Carrow shooed her away with a wave of her hands and a smile," Have fun - but not too much fun, alright? When you get back, we'll go through the visitor logs, okay?"

Hermione grinned at her - an ear-splitting smile that Carrow had only seen once before, back when she had taken the girl out to get her first wand. She nodded once before practically skipping back out of the room, no doubt about to excitedly kiss her French girlfriend in happiness or something as equally silly. Carrow's lips quirked upwards as she watched Hermione go before turning back to staring at her sandwich.

A soft 'oof' escaped her mouth as a weight suddenly appeared on her back. It took her several seconds to realise that the weight was, in fact, Hermione - who was hugging her tightly from behind.

"I'm glad that you're back, by the way."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," She said.

Carrow smiled at her. "I'm glad to be back Mia."

* * *

Fleur held onto Hermione's hand tightly as they walked up the gravel driveway to the Delacour Home.

The goodbyes had been done with relative ease. Hermione and Ginny exchanged hugs, Harry and Fleur teased them and Luna brought up relevant statistics about France. Theo was notably absent and Hermione ignored the odd pit in her stomach at his sudden disappearance. She knew that he was still slightly hurt but couldn't really find it in herself to tell him to get a grip. Besides, she was almost certain that Ginny had already told him that already.

"Tante Clara said zat most of ze family would not be 'ome," Fleur said as they walked hand in hand," It will just be us and a few ozzers."

Hermione smiled. "Does that include your cousins?" She asked," Because, I really don't think that I can cope with being prodded by them all again."

Fleur grinned and laughed before leaning to the side to press a kiss to Hermione's temple. "Zey should be at Beauxbatons," She said," Zey will not be 'ome to bozzer us. I zink zat Maman is out of ze country as well. She would-"

The front door swung open and the couple froze.

Apolline Delacour was leaning in the doorway - a smile on her face and arms already raised for hugs.

"Of course you are," Fleur muttered in annoyance before raising her voice and meeting her mother's gaze," Why are you 'ere? Tante Clara told me zat you were called away to one of ze businesses in Poland."

Apolline shrugged. "I could not miss my daughter and 'er girlfriend's arrival, now could I?"

"Right," Fleur said through gritted teeth.

The whole point of timing her and Hermione's break was precisely so they didn't have to deal with Apolline and her meddlesome ways.

Hermione reached out to place a placating hand on Fleur's shoulder before smiling softly. "It's nice to see you again, Mrs Delacour," She said.

"Oh please, call me Apolline - we are practically family now," Apolline said before waving her hand dismissively," Besides, my divorce was finalised last month."

"Er...right..."

Apolline beamed at her before opening the door wider. "Come in girls! Hurry now, the elves have just finished with lunch!"

Fleur sighed loudly as they walked into the entrance hall - a scowl appearing on her face when she realised that her break from Shell Cottage wouldn't be as relaxing as she would have liked.

* * *

_You were never the most patient._

_You never liked waiting._

_But it's all that you seem to do now._

_You wait and wait and wait._

_It's not your turn yet._

_It won't be your turn for a while._

_You hate it._

_You want it to be your turn._

_But it isn't your turn._

_It won't be your turn for a while._

_You hate waiting._

_You hate taking turns._

_You're selfish._

_You hate it._

_You hate it._

_You hate it._

_Your next victim will know just how much you hate it._


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fleur is annoyed  
> Hermione is relaxed  
> Apolline continues to meddle

"Ze audacity!" Fleur hissed when the two of them finally got to their room," Ze cheek of 'er!"

Hermione smothered her laugh as she reclined on Fleur's bed - content to watch her girlfriend pace around her room, brandishing her wand threateningly.

"I'm sure that it's just a coincidence," Hermione lied - knowing that it was anything but.

Fleur gave her a look and Hermione mimed zipping her mouth and locking it. Fleur laughed at the action before she dramatically flung herself onto the bed, catching Hermione by the waist and pulling her closer. She rested her head in her girlfriend's neck and sighed deeply.

"It'll be fine," Hermione said, patting Fleur on the back," So, what? Your mum is a little overbearing and has no concept of boundaries? We got through it last time, we'll get through it this time."

Fleur groaned and looked up at Hermione. "But we were not actually dating zat time," She groused," Maman will be even more insufferable zis time!"

Hermione just laughed - head flung back - and Fleur was momentarily star struck. She reached out with a small smile and cradled Hermione's face. Her girlfriend smiled down at her and moved forward to press a soft kiss to her lips.

"You seem to forget," Hermione said as they pulled away," That your whole family thought that we were dating last time we were visiting. In their eyes, all we're doing different now is not denying it."

Fleur let out her own small laugh, shaking her head in exasperation. "I suppose zat you are right."

* * *

The night after, had Fleur feeling in a much better mood than she fell asleep in.

Hemione was curled into her side, head resting on Fleur's chest and one arm draped over her stomach. As often as they found themselves in that position, it was made all the more special because they finally had privacy - rather than Luna staring at them as they woke up. Once or twice, Hermione had pulled Fleur into her room to sleep together but they had woken up with a smug Ginny staring at them - who had snuck into Hermione's bedroom just to tease them when they woke again.

"I can feel you staring," Hermione said softly, blinking awake and looking up at Fleur.

"It is because you are so pretty," Fleur replied.

Hermione grinned but rolled her eyes. "Flattery will get you nowhere."

Fleur quirked an eyebrow and pulled her closer. "It is not flattery if it is true."

Hermione seemed to contemplate that for a moment before nodding and moving forward, crashing their lips together. "You're such a charmer."

Fleur winked. "I am Veela."

"You can't keep using that as an excuse."

Fleur nudged Hermione and grinned. "I will stop using it as an excuse when you stop accepting it as an excuse."

Hermione hummed in answer - contemplating her options before deciding on her course of action. She sat up and turned around in Fleur's arms, dragging the girl up with her by the front of her shirt. She pulled her girlfriend into another passionate kiss.

"Ah! Young love!"

Both of them jumped apart with such force that Fleur got tangled in her blankets and went tumbling onto the floor. Apolline Delacour lounged on the doorframe with a robe around her body and a glass of wine in her hand even though it was first thing in the morning. She peered to the left of the bed and furrowed her brow. "Fleur, darling, what are you doing on ze floor?"

Fleur, in answer, muttered a string of colourful swear words under her breath before she reached onto her bed and flung a pillow in her mother's general direction - hitting Apolline squarely in the face.

"Now darling," Apolline chided," Zat was quite rude. Do you wish for 'Ermione to zink zat you were raised in a barn?" Her words were punctuated with a singular raise of a brow and Hermione stifled her laughter. No matter how many times Fleur insisted that she was nothing like her mother, quirks like that were shared by both of them.

"Go away," Fleur groaned," Is it not rude to perv on your daughter and 'er girlfriend? Do you not 'ave anyzing else to do?"

Apolline hummed for a moment - thinking over the question - before shaking her head. "Non," She said," I do not - I 'ave simply come to tell you bo'z zat breakfast will be served soon and I must insist zat you join me. You 'ave ten minutes." She winked at Hermione. "Try not to get distracted."

The bedroom door closed and Fleur groaned again, flopping back onto the floor and pressing the back of her hand to her forehead dramatically. "I 'ate 'er."

"No you don't," Hermione replied," You just don't like that she meddles."

"Same difference."

Hermione rolled her eyes and stood up. She moved around the bed and held out her hand for Fleur to take. "Come on - if your mother has no problem watching as we kiss then I don't want to know what she'll do when we aren't eating breakfast with her in a few minutes."

* * *

"And what of your family?" Apolline asked the third night of their stay as she took a long gulp from her wine glass.

Fleur reached under the table and squeezed Hermione's hand tightly. To her credit, Hermione didn't falter as she spoke. "My aunt looks after me," She said," We recently got back into contact and I owl my cousins when I'm in school."

Apolline hummed and nodded. "I see," She said," Cousins are good - we Veela always 'ave such large families, as I am sure Fleur 'as told you." Her eyes twinkled with something that Fleur couldn't fully work out - making her wish that Harry was around to interpret.

Fleur shot her mother a look - somewhere between 'stop-talking-for-all-that-is-holy' and 'I-don't-need-you-to-set-me-up-when-Hermione-is-already-my-girlfriend' - and sighed loudly as she resisted the urge to bury her head in her hands. "Maman," Her voice was low - a clear warning that Apolline did not heed.

"Fleur 'as always talked about wanting many children," Apolline continued.

Fleur scoffed under her breath and said, low enough that her mother didn't hear her," 'Ow would you know? You were never around enough to 'ear me speak of such zings."

Hermione squeezed her hand and the tiniest hint of a smile appeared on her face. "My mother had three sisters," She offered and Fleur knew she was the only one that heard the bitterness in her girlfriend's tone.

"See!" Apolline exclaimed, clapping her hands together as she turned to look at Fleur," She gets it! Oh, you two will make such wonderful babies!"

Hermione choked on her water and Fleur went deadly still. They exchanged a look.

"Maman," Fleur said, rubbing Hermione's hand with her thumb under the table," We...I mean to say...Babies? Already?"

Apolline tilted her head to the side and hummed - eyes slightly narrowed as she mulled over her thoughts. "I suppose I see where you are coming from," She said finally. She glanced at both of them - studying them intently before shrugging. "You should be married before 'aving children."

Fleur had to resist the urge to slam her head onto the table - contemplating that if she hit herself into a coma then perhaps her mother would drop the subject entirely.

* * *

The week sped by in an easy routine. Hermione and Fleur would wake up at eight, get in about half an hour of kissing before Apolline breezed into the room to let them know that breakfast was served. They would eat breakfast with her before going out to the unicorn stables to saddle up Fleur's unicorn, Melinoe. They would ride for a few hours out to the lake at the edges of the property before eating a picnic and returning back to the manor. The afternoon was spent reading in the manor library - curled up on one of the comfy armchairs together. Dinner was eaten with Apolline and the other members of the family before they returned to Fleur's room to get in a few more hours of kissing.

Currently though, Hermione and Fleur were sat on a blanket near the lake while Melinoe grazed close-by.

"This has been nice," Hermione said as she popped a grape into her mouth," I didn't realise how much I needed a break until we came here."

Fleur grinned. "'Appy to be of service."

"And there we go - you've ruined it," Hermione teased.

Fleur rolled her eyes and pulled her girlfriend closer. "I 'ave ruined nozing," She declared," You wound me so." She clutched at her heart dramatically and swayed her body around.

Hermione scoffed and pushed Fleur away - only for the girl to grab at her again and pull her even closer than before, resting her head in Hermione's neck. "Fleur," Hermione laughed as her girlfriend's nose brushed against her neck," Stop it."

"Non," Fleur replied, a grin spreading across her face," I will not release you! You are mine forever! I will keep you 'ere wiz me and we will sit zrough 'orrible dinner parties wiz my mozzer togezzer!"

Hermione laughed as she tried to wiggle out of Fleur's hold - only to find that she couldn't. "Fleur! Let me go!"

"Never!"

In seconds, Hermione was hoisted out of Fleur's arms and into the air. She turned her head to the side to find that Melinoe had wandered closer and was holding her by the back of her shirt collar.

"Melinoe!" Fleur exclaimed," Stop taking away all of my fun!"

* * *

The last night of their stay had Fleur waking up at midnight to find Hermione's side of the bed empty and cold. She turned her head to the side and rolled out of bed, padding over to where her open balcony doors were.

She found her girlfriend leaning on the railings and staring out across the estate. Fleur stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Hermione's waist and rested her head on the girl's shoulder. "What is wrong?" She asked softly.

"We're going home tomorrow."

"Ah, I see," Fleur teased," You do not want to see Ginny again. I do not blame you."

Hermione let out a small bark of laughter. "Don't be an arse."

"Oh?" Fleur quirked a brow as she pressed a soft kiss to Hermione's neck," It is not Ginny who you want to avoid?"

"Not her."

"So you do want to avoid somebody? Is it Carrow?"

"No, not her either," Hermione shook her head before sighing," Theo's continuing to act strange about us. I just...We were friends ages before we got together. I don't quite get why he can't just move on like I did. I was emotionally unavailable and he was physically unavailable. It was doomed from the start."

"I understand," Fleur said softly," It is okay. 'E will get over it at some point. 'E 'as not stopped being your friend, 'e just needs a little more time to get over 'is feelings."

"I'm worried about him," Hermione said softly," He's spiralling again and...if he goes home to his parents this summer then-"

"Zen?"

"Nothing," Hermione said," It's not my place to say."

"Zat is okay," Fleur said as she pressed another kiss to Hermione's neck. If they were back at home then she might have been tempted to leave a few marks but they weren't. They were still in France and Fleur would take Ginny teasing them about hickies over her mother finding out. "We can talk about somezing else."

Hermione chuckled. "I don't think that I can find a nice thing to talk about."

"Zen do not," Fleur replied," Tell me what you are zinking - let me into your 'ead a little bit."

Hermione smiled and leaned into her girlfriend. "Can't you profile it?"

Fleur laughed. "I try not to when I am wiz you but if you like...?"

"No," Hermione said," I'll talk." She sighed. "Alecto wants to go over visitor logs when we get home - wants to see if anything jumps out at me."

"About Bellatrix? Why?" Fleur didn't wait for an answer," Most were conjugal visits, people who practically worship ze ground she walks on - shows she is narcissistic. Family, of course - your aunt, your cousin - show zat she remains as possessively delusional as she was when we read 'er file last year. If certain people return to keep visiting zen..."

"Then they may know something that they're not supposed to," Hermione finished.

* * *

_You've sent the message._

_You watched it leave - staring at the owl as it disappeared into the sky._

_The message will reveal everything._

_The message will put them to the test._

_Maybe they're like you._

_Maybe they aren't._

_Either way, you'll find out what they're made of._

_You know that you're the best._

_You're the worthy one._

_It's just time to show that._

_The note should arrive tonight._

_They should read it tonight._

_They should know tonight._

_They'll do it in a few days - maybe a week or two._

_It only took you four days to do everything._

_They won't do it like you though._

_Because you're the best._

_The worthy one._

_Maybe they're like you._

_Maybe they aren't._

_Either way, they won't win._

_Why?_

_They won't win because you already have._


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hermione is a liar  
> The Naturals make a plan  
> Fleur and Theo argue

"Do you recognise any of them?" Carrow probed as Hermione sat in front of her - reading through the visitor logs. Some of the people were expected - Narcissa and Draco - while others Hermione had no idea even existed. Next to every name was their address and, unknown to Carrow, that was what Hermione was focussing on. 

If she were asked, she wouldn't be able to tell why but she had a feeling that the addresses were important - that she would miss something if she didn't notice them.

"Anybody at all?"

Hermione checked through the list again. A few people had come back for visits that weren't family. One of them was Severus Snape but, now that he was dead, Hermione didn't bother checking his address. One person though - one person had been coming for visits since the very beginning and Hermione jolted as she peered at the name.

Narcissa had told her about this woman before. She was another pureblood - hailing from Italy instead of England but had moved into the same town as the Blacks had lived when they were young. Narcissa had talked about how young Selene Zabini had men falling at her feet and while she was not above using them for her own pleasure, she had only ever had eyes for Bellatrix.

"Mia?" Carrow prompted again," Do you recognise anyone?"

Hermione looked up and did the only thing she could do in that situation. 

She lied through her teeth.

"No."

* * *

Fleur was in the library when her girlfriend found her. She was panting like she had just run a mile. She was dressed like she was leaving the house, a hoodie on underneath her coat with the hood pulled up to cover her hair.

Fleur stood up instantly. She reached for Hermione, pulling her closer and cupped her cheek. "Where are you going?" At Hermione's face, she dropped her hands from her face but rested them on her shoulders - a few fingers drawing languid patterns on the side of her neck.

"Fuck not getting involved," Hermione's voice was low but forceful," I can't just sit here and wait for the next body to turn up. Director Carrow thinks that he can just put me in a drawer and pull me out when I'm useful. Alecto tried to cover for him but I know what he's thinking."

Fleur felt Hermione's pulse jump underneath her fingertips. _He thinks that you owe him this - because you are the niece and the niece is the extension of her aunt and her aunt is the woman who nearly killed his daughter. He thinks that what he's doing is justified because of that._

Fleur sighed. "Where are you going?"

"I went through the visitors logs." Hermione moved forward and rested her head in the crook of Fleur's neck. " Alecto wanted to know if anything jumped out at me."

"And did it?"

Hermione nodded. "One of the visitors was a woman from Lestrange's hometown - where she started all of her murders."

Fleur cocked her head to the side. Hermione had her bag slung over her shoulder and a warm coat. Her boots were military in style - large, strong and perfect for a hike. "You are going zere."

"The woman keeps coming back. I know what type of people visit Lestrange in prison - they're fascinated and obsessed."

“Obsessed enough to re-create 'er crimes?”

"Obsessed enough that they won't cooperate with a team of Aurors," Hermione replied," Obsessed enough that they'd love to talk to me."

Fleur knew that she should have warned Hermione that Amelia would be mad, that Carrow would be mad, that even Moody would be mad if she suddenly disappeared. But she didn't - instead, she said something else. "It is late," Fleur said," 'Ow are you going to get zere? You cannot apparate, you 'ave never been zere before."

Hermione sighed. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a picture, handing it to Fleur to let her inspect it. "It's of the ancestral home of the Black family - words are keyed to let in anybody whose family, even the daughter of a Squib. I floo there, find Selene Zabini, ask a few questions and then get out."

"Wait until morning," Fleur said softly," I know zat I cannot stop you from going but wait until morning, please. If she is connected to ze killer zen it will not be good for you to go off in ze middle of ze night."

Hermione frowned. "I hate it when you overcome me with logic."

Fleur's lips quirked upwards and she tapped Hermione's nose with her finger. "One of us 'as to be ze smart one."

"Yeah," Hermione scoffed," I am."

Fleur grinned. "If zat is what you zink, zen I will not correct your wrong opinion."

* * *

The next morning, Fleur dragged Luna into the kitchen. Hermione was already there with Ginny - who was sitting on the kitchen counter in her white pyjamas. Her ginger hair was loose and unbound and the pair of them were talking so softly that Fleur couldn't make out the words.

Ginny caught sight of Fleur and Luna over Hermione's shoulder. "Lover girl here says that you stopped her from doing something stupid last night," She said," Personally, I don't know what you did to persuade her to hold her horses but horses were held. Save my ears the salacious details."

"Ginny," Hermione said through gritted teeth.

Luna raised her hand. "I have questions about the details."

"Later," Ginny promised. She reached over and patted Hermione's cheek. Fleur narrowed her eyes and Ginny folded her hands primly in front of her body. "I'll behave," She said," I promise."

"Blush. Smirk. Grimace." Harry entered the room, labelling each of them as he passed. "And Luna's confused - we miss all the fun." Theo entered after him, hands in the pockets of his blazer.

Hermione cleared her throat. "Theo."

Harry's eyes darted to her. "She needs something," He told Theo," And she hates asking because she doesn't want to be a burden."

Theo glanced at her. "Just ask."

"I would like you to accompany me and Fleur to the ancestral home of Black."

Theo narrowed his eyes. "Why?"

"We need to talk to somebody. They're pureblood and the daughter of a squib and her quarter-Veela girlfriend won't get very far."

Theo took a deep breath. He glanced between Fleur and Hermione. "Fine."

"Excellent," Ginny clapped her hands. She looked way too pleased with herself. "So Theo will go with Hermione and Fleur while Harry, Luna and I will provide the distraction."

Luna grinned. "I like this plan," She said brightly," I can be very distracting."

"Fleur and Hermione are both profilers," Theo pointed out," Doesn't that make Fleur kind of redundant? Surely the best idea would be bring Ginny with us?"

"No offense," Ginny said - her words were phrased in a way that made it obvious that her next few words were going to be insulting," But Fleur can't lie. Auror Carrow got the truth about our last little adventure out of her so quickly that it's embarrassing. If she stays here then she'll get us caught." She shrugged before adding," Besides, Carrow will know something is off if Fleur is here and Hermione isn't and vice versa." She wrinkled her nose," They're so attached that it's kind of disgusting."

Fleur wondered if Theo was going to argue anymore. It was clear that he wanted some alone time with Hermione. "Fine," He said after a few seconds of holding Ginny's smug gaze," I'll go with them." He turned to look at Hermione. He smiled - a charming smile with the slightest bit of concern peaking through. "I'm ready when you two are."

Fleur bristled at the look and she reached to put her arm around Hermione's arm. She rested her head in her girlfriend's neck. " _I_ was born ready."

* * *

The walk to the nearest Floo point in town was done in a tense and uncomfortable silence. They couldn't use the fire place in the house because it was so easy for Carrow to track after they left and they all wanted to delay her as much as possible.

"Okay," Theo snapped," I'm calling it." He reached for his phone. "I'm turning on some music or something and the next person who starts to brood, I will hex - unless it's Hermione. If it's Hermione, I'm hexing Fleur." Irritation leaked from every pore and Hermione knew what he was thinking about. The last time they had all been alone was when he had gotten shot. Hermione didn't blame him for being annoyed at the memories that surface.

Fleur, as usual, only saw the bigger picture and not the little details behind Theo's sudden anger and she wrinkled her nose up in annoyance. "And why is zat?!" She snarled. Then, her face went deadly calm and Hermione sucked in an unsteady breath - this couldn't be good. One of Fleur's eyebrows quirked. "Jealous?"

"Of you?" Theo scoffed," You must be joking." He straightened his blazer. "I have nothing to be jealous about."

Fleur's eyes twitched. "Really?" She smirked. "So, I suppose zat you do not mind if I kiss _my_ girlfriend in front of you zen?"

Hermione watched as Theo clenched his fist at his side. She stepped between them. "Enough," She said," No arguing, no brooding and no music. We should talk."

Both Fleur and Theo looked alarmed at the suggestion.

"About the case," Hermione said," We should talk about the case."

Fleur nodded once and Theo's hand slowly unfurled.

"Of course," He said, shoving his hands into his pockets," What do we know about this woman that we're going to see?"

"Her name is Selene Zabini," Hermione said," She's an Italian pureblood. According to the visitor logs, she's visited Lestrange with increasing frequency over the past three years. There's reason to believe that it may be romantic - at least on her part."

Theo wrinkled his nose in disgust and Fleur shared the sentiment - anybody being romantically interested in Lestrange made her feel sick to her stomach.

"They knew each other before she was incarcerated," Hermione continued." In all likelihood, she's either convinced herself that Lestrange is innocent or that the women she killed deserved to die."

_The real question wasn’t how Selene Zabini had justified her interest in woman most people considered a monster. The real question was whether or not she was a killer herself. If so, had she considered the murders a romantic gesture? Had she thought Hermione's aunt would be proud of her? That it would bring them closer together?_

Fleur knew instinctively that Bellatrix Lestrange didn't care about this woman. She didn't care about people in general. She was callous, unemotional and delusional. The closest she could come to real love was whatever strange feeling she felt for Hermione and, probably what she had felt for Andromeda. Andromeda and Bellatrix were near carbon copies and Hermione looked like both of them.

_Hermione was only worth caring about because Hermione was hers._

* * *

Opening the wards at the Black Ancestral home was easier than Hermione expected it to be. Just a little bit of semi-illegal blood magic here and there and the wards allowed two people not in the family to Floo in. 

"What's our plan?" Theo asked nearly twenty minutes later as the three of them stood in front of the Zabini manor. "Should we just knock on the front door?"

Fleur chuckled. "Do you 'ave a better idea?" She asked.

Theo's face hardened. "Are you really going to risk another argument?" He tutted. "Isn't that what Hermione didn't want us to do?"

Fleur sneered. "Are _you_ really going to-"

Hermione sighed loudly and shoved herself between them again. "It would be better if I went in alone."

“Non," Fleur said.

It seemed that Theo shared the same sentiment. "If you leave us here then we'll just come in after you - I don't think that would go over too well. Would it?"

Hermione crossed her arms. "Fine," She said," I'll tell her that you're my friends." She looked at Theo and Fleur before sighing again. She flashed an apologetic look at Fleur. "She won't let us in if she thinks we're together but then again..." She glanced over a Theo.

"A witch from the Black family wouldn't be seen with a male pureblood her age alone if they weren't courting and if Narcissa is still in contact with this Zabini woman then it won't end well if we're seen as friends," He finished.

Fleur supressed her snarl. "Do it," She said through gritted teeth," Before I change my mind."

Hermione rested her hand on Fleur's for a moment. "I'll do the talking," She said," If we're lucky, she'll be so fixated with me that she won't pay attention to either of you. If you can get a read on her, great. Theo - use that photographic memory of yours and remember her expressions. When we got home, draw them out for Harry to interpret. Fleur, look for any quirks or tics she has - we need a solid idea on her childhood. We get in, we get out and, with luck, we'll be home before anyone realises that we're gone."

* * *

_The waiting is killing you._

_They haven't done anything._

_Why haven't they done something?_

_It's been a few weeks since the note went off._

_This proves what you already knew._

_You're the best._

_You're the one._

_The avenger._

_The chosen one._

_You're special and they aren't._

_And yet..._

_You don't feel special._

_You don't feel special at all._

_Why don't you feel special?_

_Why?_

_You sigh and clench your fingers._

_Your nails dig into your hand._

_You want to scream._

_You want to shout._

_You want to wrap your hand around somebody's throat and watch until the light leaves their eyes._

_You don't want to use your wand anymore._

_You want to use that Muggle gun._

_You want to do it yourself._

_With your own hands._


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hermione, Fleur and Theo talk to Selene Zabini  
> Moody talks about his daughter  
> Alecto is angry

Selene Zabini lived in an elaborate manor. Unlike the Black home, this one was gleaming white - like it was made of polished marble. The front garden had beautiful roses planted on either side of the gravel pathway up to the front door. Hermione stepped forward and rang the doorbell.

Nothing happened.

"The bell's broken."

A boy wearing expensive robes stepped out from the far side of the house. He was tall - towering over even Fleur and Theo - with dark eyes that took in each of them. In his hand, was his wand, tapping aimlessly on his leg like a silent warning. He looked to be about their age as he walked closer and offered them a polite smile. "Are you selling something?"

He dismissed Theo entirely, allowed his gaze to linger a few seconds on Hermione before focussing intently on Fleur - more than likely because of how thick her Thrall was in the air.

"No," Hermione said - drawing his attention back to her. She had never been the most jealous person but she didn't care for his attention on her girlfriend. There was something off about him that she couldn't quite put her finger on.

"Are you lost?" The boy asked.

"We're looking for Selene Zabini," Theo said. He had one arm wrapped around Hermione's waist - playing the role of the charming pureblood boy.

"Who are you?" The boy asked.

"We're the people looking for Selene Zabini," Hermione replied. She sounded slightly exasperated.

The smile on the boy's face disappeared entirely and Fleur watched as he tightened his grip on the wand. "What do you want with my mother?"

“Blaise!" A shriek shattered the tense silence that had descended on the group.

"You should go," Selene's son said. His voice had dropped a few octaves and there was a sense of urgency in his tone. "My mother doesn't like company."

Before any move could be made, the front door swung open.

"Blaise, where is my-" The woman in the doorway froze. She blinked in shock before narrowing her eyes and taking in the three teenagers on her front doorstep. Fleur reached for her wand - on edge - before the woman spread her arms out wide and beamed. "Visitors!" She trilled," What are you selling?"

"We're not selling anything," Hermione said. She had straightened up and lifted her chin slightly - in the exact same way that Fleur had seen Lestrange do in the interrogation room. "We're here to talk to you...assuming you are Selene Zabini?"

“I'm Selene," The woman said - nodding. She turned to her son. "For Merlin's sake, Blaise, stop slouching. Can't you see that we have company?"

Blaise made no move to stand straighter. If anything, he made a point of slouching even more.

_A rebellious child._

Fleur turned her attention to his mother. Selene Zabini was wearing an elegant dress that nobody had any business wearing in the comfort in their own home - even Fleur's mother never wore anything so lavish when she was lounging in their living room. She wasn't wearing any makeup - save for blood red lipstick - and, if Fleur didn't know any better, then she might have mistaken the woman for a Veela.

"I suppose that it's too much to hope that you're some of the friends that Blaise has made in the village?" Selene asked," I'm sure you know, but I have the tutors come to us - that school they have in this country is way too dangerous. Blaise swears up and down that he has all these friends but he never brings them round."

"Er...no, ma'am," Hermione replied," We just met."

Fleur fought to roll her eyes at the comment. If by 'met', Hermione meant 'silently assessed each other' then the statement was accurate. Maybe that was why it took her a second to realise that Selene had begun to talk to her.

"You're a pretty one," The woman said," Look at all of that hair."

Fleur frowned. Her hair was slightly longer than average and had that silver sheen that came with being a French Veela but was, ultimately, nothing to comment about.

Selene turned to Hermione. "And those shoes, they're precious!"

Hermione was wearing a pair of old boots.

"I always wanted a girl," Selene confessed.

"Are we inviting them in or not?" Blaise cut into the conversation with an eye roll.

"Oh," Selene said, stiffening," I'm not sure that we should."

 _If your son hadn't said anything then you would have invited us in yourself,_ Fleur realised. There was something about the dynamic between the pair that made her uncomfortable.

"Did you ask them why they're here?" Selene scolded, hands on her hips," Three strangers show up in front of your house and you don't even-"

"He asked," Hermione said," But I hadn't gotten a chance to answer. I'm Hermione."

There was a spark of interest in Selene's eyes and a smile appeared on her face. "Hermione?" She repeated. She took a step forward. Her hands moved upwards like she wanted to touch Hermione's face - as if only just realising exactly who she looked like - but they remained by her side. "Hermione what?"

Hermione didn't move. She didn't blink. She didn't react at all. "Black," She replied. She glanced over at Blaise before going back to Selene. "I believe you know my Aunt Bellatrix."

* * *

"You look like her." Selene ushered them into the living room. She sat opposite Hermione. Her gaze never left the girl's face. "Bellatrix, I mean although, I suppose your mother as well, Lyra." She wrinkled her nose. "Not that I had anything to do with _her._ It's such luck, isn't it? That the Squib finally managed to do something good in her life - a witch as a daughter! Bella must be so proud." She turned to look at Theo - who had placed a hand around Hermione's waist. "And you must be her betrothed, right?"

For a moment, Theo didn't say anything. Fleur coughed under her breath and he snapped out of it. He gave the woman a restrained smile. "Courting," He said," Betrothal is still a while away."

Selene smiled. "We'll see," She said," Knowing Narcissa, darling Hermione will be betrothed within the year."

Hermione and Fleur exchanged a slightly alarmed look with each other.

“What are you doing here?" Blaise asked. He had come into the room, leaning near the armchair that Fleur had sat in. He didn't look happy. It was clear that he didn't want Hermione in his house and he didn't like the interest that his mother held in anybody who was even related to Bellatrix.

"Hermione is welcome here," Selene chided," If the appeal goes well then Narcissa will relinquish her rights to the firstborn and this could be Hermione's home."

“Appeal?" Hermione asked.

"Your aunt's appeal," Selene explained," About the evidence that they planted."

" 'They' being the Aurors?" Theo cut in.

Selene nodded as she took a sip of her tea. "None of those searches were legal," She said," None of them."

“My aunt killed those women," Hermione paused," But you know that, don't you?"

"Your aunt is a brilliant woman," Selene replied," Every brilliant woman needs an outlet. She can't be expected to live as other women can - you know that."

Fleur tensed. 

_You think you know what Hermione's like. You think that she's on your side._

She started to speak before she even realised it. "It must be hard for a woman like Bellatrix," She said and Hermione threw her warning look," To be caged like an animal, like she's less when really-"

"She's more," Selene finished - nodding.

“That's enough," Blaise snapped," You lot need to go." He reached for Fleur's elbow and practically threw her from the armchair. His hand was hard enough to bruise and the short sleeved shirt she was wearing, made it obvious that her elbow was beginning to go red. His fingers dug into her skin, twisting the flesh and almost breaking through with his nails. Fleur stumbled, barely keeping herself upright before she went sprawling towards the mantelpiece.

She barely saw Hermione move. One second she was staring at Blaise - trying to work out if he had meant to grab her that hard - and the next, the boy was pinned to the wall with Hermione's forearm pressed against his throat.

"Blaise!" Selene cried," This young lady is our guest." Her chest heaved with agitation. _Not agitation_ , Fleur realised a second later. Seeing the look in Hermione's eye, the way that she had moved - Selene was excited.

Theo had also moved and placed a hand on Hermione's shoulder - squeezing ever so slightly as if he was grounding her.

"Touch her again," Hermione warned," And I won't walk away." She released him and took a few steps back.

Blaise's hand knotted themselves into fists. "You shouldn't have come here," He said," This is sick - you're all sick!" He swept out of the room.

"I'm afraid that Blaise doesn't quite understand my relationship with your aunt," Selene said as she attempted to regain control of the situation, guiding them all back to their seats with a gleeful look on her face," He never knew his father and he doesn't quite understand how much I love Bella." She shrugged. "A single mother does what she can."

"'Ow long 'ave you and Bellatrix been togezzer?" Fleur asked.

_You aren't together._

_She's using you._

"Since before Rodolphus," Selene replied. She seemed to be pleased that she was asked. If she believed that they were on board with the relationship then it would feed into the happy little picture that she had built in her head. Hermione was visiting with her boyfriend and her best friend. This wasn't an interrogation. It was a conversation.

"Do you zink zat zis new case will affect 'er chances of an appeal?" Fleur continued.

"This case has nothing to do with Bella - nothing at all." Selene shrugged, demure and the picture of pureblood elegance. "It's somebody looking for approval." She smiled. "They clearly take pride in their work. They're doing nothing more than continuing Bella's legacy."

Fleur watched as Hermione stood - slightly pale and looking extremely unnerved. "We should go."

Theo stood as well. "Thank you for having us."

Selene nodded. She reached out a hand and touched Hermione's face. "He's such a sweet boy," She told her," And so is your pretty Veela. Bella would approve of both of them."

"Both...?"

"Surely you didn't think you could fool me?" Selene asked. Her words were punctuated by a small smile. "It's perfectly okay for somebody of your family to have two partners. Don't way, I won't tell Narcissa until you're ready to tell her."

* * *

As soon as they were out of sight of the Zabini Manor, Hermione reached for Fleur's arm. She studied it intently before reaching her shaking hands into her pockets and pulling out her wand. She muttered a spell and Fleur felt a tingle go through her body before the redness of her skin disappeared completely.

"Are you okay?" Hermione's voice was little more than a whisper.

Fleur cupped her face. "Am I okay?" She said with a small exasperated laugh," What about you?"

She watched as Hermione's throat bobbed.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"You're shaking," Theo said," You haven't stopped shaking since Blaise left the room."

Hermione stared down at her hands like this was the first time that she had seen them. She blinked a few times but, still, the shaking did not stop. She made a choked sound in the back of her throat that had Theo and Fleur looking at her in alarm.

"Sit her down," Theo ordered quickly," And lean her up against...that wall - that one there!"

Fleur did as she was told. She propped Hermione up against the wall. "What is going on?" She asked.

"Psychological shock," Theo said. He sat down at Hermione's side and indicated for Fleur to do the same. "I don't just draw," He said," I recognise symptoms and injuries. Sometimes I can link them to find the right diagnosis - if I know the name of it - and right now, Hermione's gone into shock. She's probably just processed what she's done and her brain has linked it to the three people in her life that have been violent - hence the reaction."

Theo didn't need to say who, Fleur already knew.

_Hermione's father._

_Andromeda._

_Lestrange_

"I'm like them," Hermione's voice was a whisper," I shouldn't have done that."

Fleur sent Theo an alarmed look - unsure of how to proceed.

"Why did you do it?" Theo whispered back," Take me through what happened? Why did you react like that?"

"He grabbed Fleur," Hermione said.

"Yes," Theo said, his voice soft," He did."

"He grabbed Fleur," Hermione said again," He could have gone for you. He could have gone for me. But he went for Fleur."

"And when you z'reatened 'im," Fleur added," 'E left, remember?

Hermione nodded. "He left...after I threatened him."

"That's right," Theo said," It doesn't matter how you did it but he left. He left Fleur alone and he left the room. You aren't like them, Hermione, do you want to know why?"

"Why?"

"Because you stopped," Theo continued," They wouldn't have stopped but you did."

"I did."

"Zat is right," Fleur said. Hermione turned to look at her - tears in her eyes. "You are nozing like zem, do you understand?" Hermione nodded shakily. "You are not like zem. You are better zan zem."

Hermione nodded - more confident than before. "Yeah," She said, blinking away the tears," I am."

She turned to look over at Theo and gave him a weak smile.

He beamed at her. "Welcome back. You ready to go home?"

* * *

When they got back, Moody was waiting for them at the end of the pathway.

"I've always believed that if you give kids enough space, they make their own mistakes and then they'll learn from it." Moody remained silent for a few seconds. "Then one time, my daughter was about ten. She and her best friend got it into their heads that they were going to go on an expedition."

"You have a daughter?" Theo asked.

Moody continued as if Theo had never spoken. "Emmeline always had ideas like that. She would get it in her brain that she was going to do something and then there was no talking her out of it. And her little friend? If Emmeline was in it for the science then her friend was the expedition type. The scale-down-the-side-of-a-cliff-for-a-potion-ingredient type. They nearly got themselves killed." He stopped talking as he let them all think about that. "Sometimes, some kids need a little help with the learning."

Moody hadn't raised his voice. He didn't even look angry but suddenly, Fleur knew that she did not want his 'help'.

"It was my fault," Hermione said," Theo and Fleur only went with me so I wouldn't go alone."

Moody gave her a look that only somebody who had been a parent could manage. The look that showed that they could recognise their own child's bullshit. The look that Fleur had never seen her own parents make before - yet again proving to her that her parents had never been proper parents to her.

"I needed to do this."

"Maybe you did," Moody said," But I would think of a better excuse because you're going to need it."

Fleur froze when she heard the front door swing open. Auror Carrow stood in the doorway. "Inside," She ordered," Right now."

* * *

"Do you know where Amelia is right now?" Auror Carrow's question wasn't the one that Fleur expected her to lead with. "She's at a general magical law enforcement station, meeting with a young boy about your age who thinks he has information on the Alicia Spinnet murder. You see, a serial killer's niece paid his mother a visit this afternoon and Mr Zabini thinks that the girl is violent." She paused. "The boy has a bruise on his neck to back up his claim."

Fleur reached for Hermione's hand.

“Luckily," Auror Carrow continued, making the word sound more like an accusation than an expression of luck," Amelia has general law enforcement routing anything relevant to the case through her so she was the one who took the statement. She's still there, in fact. As it turns out Blaise Zabini has a lot to say - about Hermione, her 'pureblood betrothed' and their 'pet Veela' as well as his mother's relationship with Bellatrix Lestrange."

Nobody replied for a moment - only shifting uncomfortably at the scrutiny. When Carrow didn't get any response, she crouched down in front of the sofa that Hermione and Fleur was sat on.

"It's always one step forward and two steps back with you, Mia," She said," Why didn't you say that you recognised her name?"

"She's obsessed," Hermione replied," She wouldn't talk to you guys. But me? The veritable copy of Bellatrix Lestrange and Andromeda Black? She was interested."

"When 'Ermione attacked Blaise," Fleur added warily," She - Selene Zabini - looked excited, like she wanted 'er to lose control."

"Why did you attack him?"

Hermione shrugged. "He grabbed at Fleur - _hurt her._ I just saw red."

Carrow looked unnerved at this. "Like when you hit the trees?"

Hermione didn't answer and Carrow took that as a yes. She sighed deeply. "I told my father that I trust you," She said," I told him I could handle this."

Fleur watched as her words dug their way under Hermione's skin. She watched as Hermione pushed back. "I never asked you to handle me."

Carrow flinched like she had been slapped. "Mia..." She trailed off before her face hardened," I've been thinking about this for a while but I've decided now. Be ready tomorrow morning, nine o'clock."

Hermione stopped slouching. Her eyes darted nervously. "For what?"

"Therapy," Carrow said," Two hour session with a magical therapist. One hour alone, second hour with me - we have issues that we need to work out."

"You have a case," Hermione reminded her.

Carrow shrugged. "And you have self-destructive tendencies that need to be addressed. Guess which one I'm prioritising?"

Fleur was surprised that Hermione didn't fight more. All she said was," Keep me updated on the case?"

Carrow offered her a nod. She turned to Theo. "You and Hermione are dismissed," She said," Fleur stay here - I need to give you something." Once they were gone, Carrow looked over at Fleur. "Put your foot on the table."

That was when Fleur remembered.

' _You take a step out of Cornwall without my permission again then I'll have you fitted with a tracking rune.'_

"You cannot be serious," She said.

Do I look like I'm joking?" Carrow asked," I made you a promise and I intend to keep it." She knelt down and clipped the anklet in place. It was made of a worn strip of leather embedded with runes of hunting and signalling. "If you leave the yard, I'll know it. If you try to remove the runes, I'll know it. If you violate the perimeter set into this anklet, a silent alarm will go off and this," She lifted her arm and showed Fleur a bracelet of leather around her wrist," Will project an image through my occlumency barriers the route from this house to where you are. Amelia has one as well and we will drag you kicking and screaming back home."

Fleur looked down and nodded.

"Good," Carrow said," Now, in a show of good faith, I will offer you some advice. Hermione is hurting and she'll need you by her side. My Father wants to send her back in there with Lestrange soon and, after what's happened today, she'll need somebody to support her. That person needs to be you."

Fleur looked up. "You should add Selene Zabini to your list of suspects," She said," We asked 'er about ze case. She was excited, said somezing about 'carrying on Lestrange's legacy'. And 'er reaction to 'Ermione 'urting 'er son? It was not normal. It was almost like...almost like she wanted to watch 'Ermione kill 'im or somezing."

Carrow was just about to answer when her phone rang. Every muscle was tense when the person on the other line began to talk. "You're kidding me. When?" Carrow was silent for a while, making it clear that 'when' wasn't the only question being answered. "I can be there in ten."

She ended the call abruptly.

“Bad news?”

“Dead body.”

"Who is it?" Fleur asked - almost afraid to ask. 

Carrow closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Amelia was only five minutes away," She said softly," She could have stopped it if she didn't bother to interview the little bastard who snitched on Mia." She took another breath and turned to Fleur. "The victim is Selene Zabini."

* * *

_You can picture Selene Zabini's last moments perfectly in your mind._

_In fact, now that the deed is done, you can’t stop picturing it, over and over again._

_Hands bound together._

_Plastic biting into fleshy wrists._

_Brand._

_Burning flesh._

_Crucio._

_Crucio._

**_Crucio._ **

_Burning flesh smells the same whether or not it’s supple._

_Whether or not it’s young._

_Just thinking about the brand sinking in, you can smell it._

_With each breath, you picture it._

_The screaming._

_The crying._

_The begging for mercy._

_The raise of a wand._

_The flash of green._

_Dull, lifeless eyes._


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hermione attends therapy  
> The Naturals continue to work on a case they aren't supposed to  
> Bellatrix Lestrange manages to screw everybody over from within Azkaban

The tension was palpable as Hermione and Alecto sat on opposite ends of the sofa.

Marlene Mckinnon - the therapist who was leading the session - sat in front of them in a plush armchair.

For the fifth time since the second session had started, Hermione inspected her surroundings. They were all sat in an office like space that had been renovated to look nicer than it actually was. Behind the armchair was a shelf of books - whose titles Hermione couldn't make out from her position on the sofa - and every available space had been lined with lit candles.

There was a clock on the far wall - just to the left of the desk in front of the window. The desk looked old - probably something that was bought from a yard sale, Marlene looked like the type. It was worn and there were a few chips here and there but seemed to have good use, if the amount of papers stacked on it was anything to go by.

Hermione flicked her eyes to the therapist she had been sent to. Marlene Mckinnon was a tall woman. Her blonde hair was more golden than Fleur's silver and it was obviously naturally straight but it had been curled to look like it wasn't. She was lounging back in her armchair, one leg propped up on the other. Her pant suit was unwrinkled and ironed to perfection along with her blazer and shirt.

Hermione raked her eyes over the woman again. She re-analysed the woman's hair - no strand was out of place.

_A perfectionist._

The first session had been Hermione word-vomiting all of her feelings about the death of her mother and it left her emotionally drained - too emotionally drained to even consider pretending to play along for the second session.

"Alright," Marlene said again," Does anybody want to talk?"

Hermione kept her mouth shut as she ignored the pointed look that was sent her way by Alecto. Just because she agreed that therapy was a good thing didn't mean that she would willing give up information about herself to this strange woman.

There was another bout of silence.

"I won't make you speak if you don't want to," Marlene said, leaning forward slightly," But a bit of advice, things won't get resolved if you won't talk to your step-mother."

Hermione nearly rolled her eyes at that. It figured that Alecto would have had to tell some lie about their relation to get them in. Both Auror files and magical orphan files were sealed in the ministry and it was easier to lie - especially if said orphan was part of a strictly off-the-book program that had Aurors training underaged prodigies in ethically dubious ways.

Hermione sighed deeply. She flicked her eyes between Alecto and Marlene. "And I can speak freely - however I want?"

"Of course," Marlene said with a smile on her face, leaning back in her seat," This is a place without judgement, Hermione. Express yourself in any way that you want."

Hermione fell silent for a few moments before she turned to look at Alecto - face completely blank. "Frankly, I find it insulting that you thought that you could waltz back into my life after being away for so long and pick up where we left. I find it insulting that you've been shitty to all of my friends - not to mention Fleur! And, I find it insulting that you can't just trust me when I want to do things my way."

"Hermione, it's not that I don't trust you-"

"I'm not done speaking!" Hermione snapped. Her eyes were blazing with anger as her hands tightened into fists so tight that her knuckles began to turn white. "I hate how you're treating Amelia, I hate that you let your father come into the cottage and..." She looked away and let her shoulders slump. "And...And I'm terrified that you'll leave again." She took a breath. "And I hate you for making me feel that way." 

Hermione stood without any prompting and marched towards the door - leaving Alecto gaping after her as she slammed the door shut behind her.

"Try not to feel bad," Marlene said softly," It's progress - earlier she told me that she wasn't going to speak in the second session at all. All progress is good progress."

* * *

Fleur was a slump as she sat on one of the stools in the kitchen - her face the picture of annoyance. None of it made any sense and she mentally recounted all that she knew. Every lead that the Naturals had come up with had ended with a brick wall. First, they had found out that Alicia was having an affair with Snape - who had turned up just as dead as she was. They had sifted through internet profiles for days before finding out that every single one had an alibi. She, Hermione and Theo had gone to talk to Selene Zabini - who had turned up dead while her son had an iron clad alibi while the murder was going on because he had been locked in an interview room with Amelia.

Nothing they had done on this case had turned out the way it was supposed to and Fleur couldn't help but slump in her seat at the thought of it.

"As far as accessories go, it leaves a little something to be desired," Ginny said as she strolled into the room with a tub of ice cream under arm and her eyes trained on the leather anklet around Fleur's ankle. "Although that exact shade of brown does bring out the colour of your eyes."

Fleur wrinkled her nose in annoyance. "Shut up," She muttered.

"Somebody's cranky today," Ginny crooned. She hopped onto the marble countertop and flicked her wand. A spoon from the cutlery drawer flew out and landed in front of Fleur as Ginny pushed the ice cream tub towards her. "You have to admit - it's extremely ironic." She shrugged. "Out of all of us, you're the least likely to be arrested. In fact, you might be the only one of us who hasn't been arrested before." She tilted her head to the side and listed them off with her fingers. "Theo - disturbances in his crappy, rich Pureblood living area. Harry - assault of police officers after he saw them shove some kid. Me - multiple things I can't be bothered to get into. Luna - kleptomaniac, need I say more? Hermione-"

"Yeah, yeah," Fleur snapped, cutting her off," You might be next. Carrow probably orders zese in bulk."

"Bit of a double standard, don't you think?" Ginny drawled - eyes alight with amusement. "Hermione sneaks out and gets sentenced to therapy. You sneak out and-"

"Enough," Fleur hissed out," Sitting around and talking about it is not going to change anyzing. It is not our biggest problem."

"Our biggest problem is that our suspect, one Selene Zabini, is now dead."

Fleur turned around when she heard Theo's voice. The boy was leaning against the wall with Harry and Luna walking past him.

"We went to see her and now she's dead," Hermione said. She walked in through the front door and Fleur studied her girlfriend intently. She looked emotionally drained - so emotionally drained that it seemed to weigh on her physically. Her shoulders were slouched forward and she was dragging her feet as she moved to stand between Fleur's legs, nestled in her girlfriend's arms.

" 'Ow did it go?" Fleur asked softly.

Hermione peered up at her. Her face twisted into a grimace and, wisely, Harry didn't comment on whatever emotion he saw there. "I'll tell you later?" Hermione whispered back and Fleur nodded.

"Temporal proximity doesn't imply causation," Luna said as she walked forward. She patted Hermione awkwardly on the shoulder - a move that Fleur interpreted as the Luna version of saying 'there, there'.

"That's the question, isn't it?" Harry said, moving so he could stand by Ginny. "Was Selene already in the killer's sights or did your visit somehow set the UNSUB off?"

"If it was ze visit," Fleur mused," Zen zat must mean zat ze UNSUB 'as been watching us." They all supressed the shiver that ran down their backs. "But, zey cannot be watching us. Not after ze Andromeda zing - Amelia upped our security so much zat I am surprised we are not under ze Fidelius Charm."

"Spinnet's murder was fairly well-planned," Hermione said. She was flipping in and out of profiler mode so easily that most of them (except Fleur) had missed the sudden change. Whatever Hermione had talked about in her therapy session had her trying to distance herself from what happened. She didn't use _I_ or _you._ She didn't even use Alicia's first name. "The presentation of her corpse was precise. Based on our interactions with Amelia and Carrow over the last few days, I'm guessing that they don't have much in the way of physical evidence. We're looking at someone with a high level of attention to detail which suggests that our killer would be methodical in selecting their victims."

Fleur closed her eyes and tried to make sense of the tangled thoughts that were cycling through her mind. "If ze UNSUB is doing zis because zey identify wiz Bellatrix Lestrange zen it makes sense zat zey would seek out someone who actually knows Lestrange for victim two."

"Victim three," Luna said - almost absentmindedly," You forgot about the professor."

She was right - of course. Fleur had left out the professor for one reason. Even though Amelia and Carrow had said nothing about how he had died, Fleur's gut didn't believe that the UNSUB had tortured Snape the way he had tortured the females.

_Bellatrix Lestrange's original victims had all been female. Binding and branding them had been about ownership. An UNSUB who identified with the method and brutality of that MO wouldn't relish the death of an older man the same way. The women were the main event - Snape had just been in the way._

_Some things you do because you want to and some things you do because you have to do it._

Hermione didn't say anything about Fleur's omission of Snape from the victim list. "Spinnet was young. She was friendly and well-liked by her classmates. Selene was older. She was mentally unstable and, based on her reaction to having visitors, was more used to going out to see other people than having people come to her so she was also socially isolated."

Most killers had a type but Fleur couldn't really understand what Selene Zabini and Alicia Spinnet had in common.

"Alicia's young. She's pretty." Hermione had an odd timbre to her voice and Fleur recognised it instantly. She had finally gotten out of the odd limbo that her first therapy session had put her in. She was back in profiler mode. "She's sleeping with a man who fancies himself an expert on Bellatrix Lestrange. Maybe that's why _I_ chose her."

Fleur's go-to word when profiling an UNSUB was _you_ but Hermione always said _I._

"Or maybe," Hermione said," _I_ chose a girl who wouldn't sleep with _me_ and then one who was sleeping with the woman that _I'm_ emulating." Hermione's eyes were closed slightly - probably in an attempt to help her visualise - and Fleur automatically took Hermione's hand to make sure that she didn't sink so far into the possibilities that her mind was conjuring. "If Lestrange wasn't in prison then she would have killed Selene Zabini herself. She would have sliced Selene up and strung her up and laughed every time she screamed."

She fell silent and Fleur's brow furrowed.

" 'Ermione?" She asked tentatively, squeezing the hand in her grasp.

Hermione's eyes flew open and her face changed enough to have Harry sucking in a breath at whatever he saw there. 

Hermione reached for her phone.

"Who are you calling?" Ginny asked.

"Amelia."

When Amelia answered, Hermione had already been pulled onto Fleur's laps - calming circles rubbed into her back and Fleur's Thrall wrapped around them both tightly like a weighted blanket, a grounding presence that stopped Hermione from spiralling into a panic attack. "It's me," She said in lieu of greeting when Amelia finally answered," Yes Amelia - I know that you're at the coroner's. That's why I'm calling. I need you to look for something." There was a pause before she started to speak again. "Yell at me later, Amelia. Right now, I need you or Alecto to tell me if there's anything eye catching on Selene's body."

Silence fell over the room for a minute. Ginny sent Fleur a questioning look - who just shook her head. She was just as clueless about what was going on as the others were.

"Nothing?" Hermione said. She exhaled loudly and relaxed in Fleur's grip. "No residual spell damage. No bits of knife in her skin. No tattoos." There was another pause. "No, no I'm fine Amelia. I just had a thought. I'm sure it's nothing." Amelia must have said something on the other side of the phone because Hermione answered her with another question. "Can you look in her pockets?"

Hermione went rigid again and, opposite her, Harry sucked in an unsteady breath. "Well that's not good," He said.

"We have a problem." Hermione's voice was stiff - an exact match to her posture. "I don't think our UNSUB is a copycat." She turned to look into Fleur's eyes. "I think Lestrange has a partner."

* * *

Amelia and Carrow arrived back at the house late that night. None of them were asleep. Harry and Ginny had claimed the armchair together while Theo sat on the floor in front of them. Luna was sat on the opposite end of the sofa to Hermione - who was snug on Fleur's lap, neither one of them having left their warm cocoon of Thrall. When it struck midnight, Moody had come in to chase them all to bed but had ultimately just left them all a few energy drinks and several cups of coffee.

"Contents of Selene Zabini's pockets." Amelia threw a clear plastic bag lightly down onto the table in front of them. Inside of it was a single playing card - the Queen of Spades.

"I want to be wrong," Hermione said. She hadn't moved a muscle. "I should have been wrong."

"What put the idea in your head?" Carrow sounded hoarse and Fleur turned her head to inspect her. She wondered if finding out that the man who had kidnapped and tortured her now had a partner on the outside had taken a toll on the woman or, if it was about whatever she and Hermione had talked about in therapy that morning. Either way, she looked like she had fought her way through hell.

"I was profiling our UNSUB," Hermione said," I though that our guy might have targeted Selene Zabini because it would be what Lestrange would have done if she wasn't in prison. It made sense - just one step closer to become Lestrange - but then, I thought about the fact that we'd gone to see her, me, Fleur and Theo." She took a breath. "And then I thought about what we talked about when we went to visit Lestrange. She gave up information about the professor in exchange for information about me. She asked me my favourite suit in a deck of cards. I told her that it was spades." She jerked her chin to where the card in the bag was laying. "She's messing with us."

"She told you the truth about the professor's location," Ginny said slowly," But not the whole truth. She deals in technicalities, half-truths and seemingly white lies. She manipulates people as easy as breathing."

"And she manipulated us," Fleur said slowly. Her arms wrapped tightly around Hermione's neck and she rested her head on her girlfriend's shoulder. "We were just puppets on 'er stage." She nudged Hermione with her nose. "You told Amelia to look in Selene's pocket. 'Ow did you know somezing would be zere?"

Hermione shrugged and leaned back in Fleur's embrace. "I didn't," She said," But I knew that if Lestrange was involved, that if Selene died because we went to see her that she'd want me to know."

_She had wanted to send a message. That Hermione was hers. Hermione would always be hers. She wasn't her mother's. She wasn't Narcissa's. She didn't belong to the DMLE. She didn't even belong to herself. Lestrange had chosen to use the Queen card - royalty, somebody who ruled over people - as herself. She had used Hermione's favourite suit to tell her just who was being ruled._

“It's not just for you." Carrow had been remarkably quiet this whole time. "It's for us too - Amelia and me. Lestrange wants us to know that we're playing her game." Carrow's lips pulled back into a grimace. "She wants us to know that she's winning." She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "We should have seen it. _I should have seen it._ The first murders showed all the hallmarks of an organised killer - the planning, the lack of physical evidence, the supplies the UNSUB brought to the scene. But there were things that didn't fit. The fact that the UNSUB attacked from behind, dumping the body in a public location. That's impulsiveness, deviation from the plan and signs of self-confidence issues." Carrow tilted her head to the side. "Organised, disorganised. When a crime scene has the hallmarks of both, you're either dealing with an inexperienced UNSBU who's still refining their technique or you're dealing with two UNSUBs."

Hermione sighed. "A dominant who makes that plans and a subordinate who helps carry it out."

Carrow had put the UNSUB's age between twenty-three and nineteen but she had worked out those numbers based on the assumption that the UNSUB was acting alone. Factoring Lestrange into the equation had changed things. It was still a safe bet that the UNSUB idolised Lestrange, that they longed for power and authority and control. The lack of a stable authority figure in the UNSUB's adolescent years was still probably right on target. But, if that was the role Lestrange was playing for the UNSUB then what was Lestrange looking to get out of it?

_The same thing that Andromeda had wanted from Hermione._

_Maybe Lestrange was looking to re-create that with the UNSUB. Maybe the whole case had just been a way to show Hermione who would have been in charge of her life. Maybe to force Hermione to come and see her - face to face._

"We should adjust ze lower end of ze age range for our UNSUB," Fleur said," To seventeen."

She didn't explain her reasoning but she noticed the second that the meaning of the words registered to Hermione. If she hadn't used that Time-Turner a few years ago then she would be seventeen.

Amelia stared at them for a few seconds. "What are you thinking?"

"Our UNSUB and Lestrange are not partners," Fleur said," Women like Bellatrix Lestrange do not 'ave partners. Zey do zink zat zey 'ave equals." She paused for a fleeting moment and grabbed Hermione's hand. "Ze person we are looking for is not a partner. It is an apprentice."

* * *

_You loathe the position that you are in now._

_You don't like feeling vulnerable._

_You don't like being at the mercy of others._

_Following orders felt good at first._

_It felt fun._

_But now..._

_Now you don't want to follow orders._

_You don't want to be part of the group._

_You want others to be in awe of you._

_You want to be put on a pedestal._

_You want to be worshipped._

_But you can't be..._

_You won't be worshipped - treated like the god you are - if you continue on the path that you're on._

_You want to ignore what you've been told._

_To do it yourself._

_To not submit yourself to the will of others._

_And yet-_

_You sigh, deep and drawn out._

_You look at the owl at your window - leg already out with the note attached._

_You sneer at it - lip pulled up to reveal your teeth._

_You snatch the note and sit back at your desk._

_Your mood is foul when you read what is written there._

_You hate it._

_You hate it._

_You hate it._

_But you'll do it anyway._


End file.
